Essential oil composition of berries of Juniperus oxycedrus L. ssp. oxycedrus according to their ripening stage

ABSTRACT

Some essential oils (EOs) can be extracted from berries of different species, and their composition depends on their maturation level. In this work, these parameters were correlated for Juniperus oxycedrus L ssp. oxycedrus. For this purpose, a classification method based on the CIE L*a*b* colour measurement was applied. Once the samples were classified, they were subjected to simultaneous distillation extraction and gas chromatography (GC/FID and GC/MS). Hydrocarbon monoterpenes constituted the major fraction (42.8–89.8%), mainly represented by α-pinene (30.1–66.4%) and myrcene (6.1–34.8%). Hydrocarbon sesquiterpenes accounted for 4.0–26.4%, with germacrene-D (0.2–16.9%) as the major component. The discriminant analysis proved that CIE L*a*b* implementation was useful to classify the ripening stage. Regarding the EO composition, significant differences were observed in myrcene, camphor and germacrene-D, as well as in the grouped oxygenated and hydrocarbon terpenoids. In general, a progressive increase in oxygenated compounds was noted over the maturation process.

KEYWORDS:

• Juniperus oxycedrus L
• berries
• essential oils
• ripening stage
• colour

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.