GC MS Based Characterization of Lipophilic Constituents from Bay Leaves (<em>Syzygium polyanthum</em> (Wight) Walp.)

Syzygium polyanthum (Indonesian bay leaf) is widely consumed as a culinary spice and is traditionally used for health related purposes, yet chemical standardization of region specific materials remains limited, particularly for nonpolar fractions that contain volatile and semivolatile constituents. This study aimed to generate a baseline chemical fingerprint of the n hexane fraction of S. polyanthum leaves collected in Paniki Bawah, Mapanget District, Manado, Indonesia. Dried leaf powder was macerated with 96% ethanol for six days with daily solvent renewal, the filtrate was concentrated under reduced pressure, redissolved in warm distilled water, and fractionated by liquid liquid partitioning to obtain the n hexane fraction. The fraction was analyzed by GC MS, and peak identities were assigned by spectral library matching. Twenty constituents were tentatively identified, dominated by fatty acids and fatty acid methyl esters, with additional aliphatic ketones and terpene related compounds. Major annotations included decanoic acid, dodecanoic acid, tetradecanoic acid, 2 undecanone, 2 tridecanone, nerolidol, and 6,10,14 trimethyl 2 pentadecanone. The clustering of multiple library hits at identical retention times suggests potential coelution; therefore, the reported profile is best interpreted as a qualitative screening fingerprint rather than definitive quantification. Overall, these findings provide a region specific reference for future marker selection, batch to batch comparison, and integration with targeted bioactivity assays to support quality control development for S. polyanthum based products.