Chemical compositions of the leaf essential oils of some Annonaceae from Vietnam

Abstract

The leaf oils of some genus of Annonaceae collected from Vietnam in December 2009 were analyzed by capillary gas chromatography (GC) and GC coupled with mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The major compounds identified in the oil of Artabotrys pallens Ast. were α-gurjunene (21.9%), α-phellandrene (20.1%) and bicycloelemene (9.6%). The oil of Goniothalamus tamirensis Pierre ex Finet & Gagnep. contained β-selinene (12.3%), bicyclogermacrene (10.9%), caryophyllene oxide (10.4%) and bicycloelemene (5.6%) in abundance. However, β-pinene (33.4%), α-pinene (32.3%) and β-caryophyllene (10.5%) were the most quantitative significant constituents of Dasymaschalon rostratum Merr. & Chun. From the oil of Uvaria pierrei Finet & Gagnep. we could identified bicycloelemene (18.3%), germacrene D (30.2%), bicyclogermacrene (26.4%) and β-bisabolene (7.7%) as the major compounds, while γ-elemene (54.0%) was the most singly abundant constituent of Uvaria dac Pierre ex Finet & Gagnep oil. All the other compounds were identified in amount less than 5% with the most prominent ones being myrcene (3.8%) and limonene (3.8%). In addition, the oil of Melodorum vietnamensis Ban., had an abundance of α-pinene (15.4%), bicyclogermacrene (13.9%), bicycloelemene (10.8%) and β-caryophyllene (9.9%). The chemotaxonomic importance of the results was also discussed.

Keywords:

• Artabotrys pallens
• Goniothalamus tamirensis
• Dasymaschalon rostratum
• Uvaria pierrei
• Uvaria dac
• Melodorum vietnamensis
• Annonaceae
• essential oil
• α-pinene
• β-pinene
• β-selinene
• bicyclogermacrene
• caryophyllene oxide
• β-caryophyllene
• germacrene D
• bicycloelemene
• γ-elemene

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Prof. J.J. Brophy, for useful literature information, and NAFOSTED (Vietnam) for the financial support of this study through the Project Nr. 104.01-2010.27.