Essential oil composition of leaves and inflorescences of Elsholtzia densa Benth. from western Himalaya

ABSTRACT

The essential oil compositions of leaves and inflorescences of Elsholtzia densa Benth. from western Himalaya were studied and compared using gas chromatography-flame ionization detector and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Altogether, forty constituents comprising 83.3–83.7% of essential oil composition were identified. The leaf essential oil of E. densa was characterized by citral (52.2%), geranyl acetate (3.3%) and geraniol (3.1%), whereas the inflorescence essential oil of E. densa was found to be dominated by pinocarvone (51.9%), cis-pinocamphone (5.2%) and citronellyl acetate (3.4%). The essential oil compositions were compared with earlier reports on Elsholtzia spp. from different geographic regions that revealed noteworthy compositional variability.

KEYWORDS:

• Elsholtzia densa
• essential oil
• citral
• leaf
• cone
• pinocarvone

Acknowledgements

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi, India is thankfully acknowledged for financial support. Authors are thankful to the Director, CSIR-Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants for providing necessary facilities and continuous encouragement.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi, India is thankfully acknowledged for financial support.