Abstract
The essential oil compositions from the dried stems of Schisandra chinensis with different fruit colours were analyzed and compared by applying multivariate statistical techniques to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) data sets. As the results, a total of fifty-six compounds representing 91.0-94.4 % of the oil were identified. Of the total identified compounds, monoterpenes (27.6-39.6 %) and sesquiterpenes (22.2-33.6 %) were the main volatile compositions, followed by alcohols (19.6-23.1 %), ketones (4.2-8.0 %) and aldehydes (0.9-1.4 %). Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) were used to successfully discriminate stem samples of S. chinensis with different fruit colours.