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Abstract
Gas chromatography mass spectrometry was used to analyze the essential oil of three common Cyperus species grown in Egypt. The essential oils were obtained from the tubers and aerial parts of the plants using either hydrodistillation or head space analysis. The results revealed similarity between the tubers and aerial parts contents among the same species but showed variations between different species. Both C. articulatus and C. esculentus were much higher in their contents of sesquiterpenes relative to monoterpens, compared to C. papyrus. Major chemical constituents were identified to be pinene, eucalyptol, myrtenol, copaene, cyperene, caryophyllene, patchoulene and caryophyllene oxide. Essential oils of tubers and stems (aerial parts) from C. articulatus were characterized by much larger amount of sesquiterpenes (73 % and 71 % respectively) than monoterpenes (27 % and 24 % respectively), while the C. esculantus essential oil showed similar percentage of sesquiterpenes (74 % and 71 % for tubers and stem respectively) but had much lower percentage of monoterpenes (8 % and 12 % for tubers and stems respectively. C. esculantus essential oil also was characterized by higher contents of none terpenoid compounds (18 % and 17 % for tubers and stems respectively. On the other hand essential oil of C. papyrus was rich in monoterpens (67 % and 61 % for tubers and stems respectively) and only 33 % and 39 % sesquiterpenes in tubers and stems respectively, it also showed the absence of none terpenoid compounds.