**1. Introduction**

Hog plum (*Spondias mombin* L.) is a member of the Anacardiaceae family and is locally known as "Amra" in Bangladesh. Its fruit is a drupe characterized with a mixed taste of sour and sweet, and has gained increased importance in modern medicine for its possible pharmacological activities [1,2]. It grows mostly in the Indian subcontinent, e.g., in Bangladesh, India (Assam and Bombay), and Nepal. In Bangladesh, the cultivatable area of hog plum was about 1247 acres, and the corresponding total production was 36,068 metric tons (MT) in 2016–2017 [3,4]. Hog plum is mainly consumed as fresh fruit and has other uses such as making jam, jelly, squash, and marmalades, on a small scale and on a commercial scale. After the consumption and manufacturing of the above products, the peels are discarded as waste that holds almost 20% of the fresh fruit [5,6]. These wastages are considered a problem for the food processing industry and pollution monitoring organizations [7]. Nevertheless, these waste portions could be used as a potential source of valuable by-products like essential oils (EOs) which could be extracted from flowers, leaves, stems, roots, seeds, barks, resins, or fruit rinds [6].

Essential oils from citrus fruits are a group of natural flavors and fragrances which are popularly used in the food and pharmaceutical industries, daily chemical products, and in the health care field [8–12]. The products of medicinal plants like EOs and their antimicrobial properties have been empirically recognized for centuries, but recently the antimicrobial properties have been studied and confirmed scientifically [13–15]. These EOs effectively control the growth of different microorganisms like fungus, yeasts, bacteria, etc., which has been reported in several studies [16–21]. The bark extract of hog plums exhibits a valuable antibacterial activity, while the aqueous extract of the bark has shown a moderate antibacterial activity against *Escherichia coli*, *Salmonella typhimurium*, and *Vibrio cholerae* [22,23].

Many studies have been carried out regarding the fruit, bark, and leaf extracts of hog plums [24–28], but there has been little research work on hog plum peels, which may contain various bioactive volatile and antimicrobial compounds. The extraction and identification of bioactive volatile compounds (VCs) in hog plum peels and their preservation are a potential source of medicine as well as nutrients for functional foods and feed industries.

Therefore, the present study was conducted to discover the chemical composition and anti-microbial properties of hog plum peel oil collected from different regions of Bangladesh.

### **2. Materials and Methods**
