Chemical variability of flower essential oils of ten well-known cultivars of Paeonia × suffruticosa Andr

ABSTRACT

This study aimed at chemical variability of flower essential oils of 10 well-known cultivars of Paeonia × suffruticosa Andr. The essential oil yields ranged as 0.19–0.67% (w/w). The chemical compositions varied with cultivars. ‘Xueying Taohua’ essential oil had predominance of citronellol (56.4%). ‘Guifei Chacui’ essential oil was rich in citronellol (35.9%) and phloroglucinol trimethyl ether (25.3%). ‘Sheng Gejin’ and ‘Yuhou Fengguang’ essential oils were rich in phloroglucinol trimethyl ether (36.5%, 26.8%). ‘Yinhong Qiaodui’ essential oil contained geraniol + nerol (23.9%). Those from the other five cultivars did not present typical chemotypes. Nevertheless several compounds were noted, mainly germacrene D, heptadeca-6,9-diene, (Z)-hex-3-en-1-ol and linalool oxide (furan). ‘Luhe Hong’ essential oil contained the most unique components, including α-cadinol, τ-muurolol and δ-cadinene. Lack of phenylethyl alcohol was noticeable in some essential oil samples as compared with hydrolate extracts investigated previously. Multivariate analyses revealed four distinct clusters from all the essential oil samples.

KEYWORDS:

• Essential oil
• chemical variability
• Paeonia × suffruticosa Andr.
• cultivar
• multivariate analysis

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Associate Research Fellow Huanling Zhang, Luoyang Institute of Woody Peony, for her assistance in collecting the plant materials.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Doctoral Startup Foundation of Henan University of Science and Technology (4020-13480039) and Scientific and Technological Project of Henan Province (182102310251 and 222102310376).