Intraspecific variability in yield and chemical composition of essential oil of the endemic species Hypericum gaitii from different natural habitats of Eastern India

Abstract

Hypericum gaitii (Hypericaceae) is an endemic and endangered perennial shrub having ethnobotanical and medicinal importance. In the present study, the variation in the yield and chemical composition of essential oil (EO) isolated from aerial parts of plants belonging to seven wild populations of H. gaitii from Eastern India was investigated for the first time. The essential oil yield obtained through hydrodistillation varied in the range of 0.20 and 0.45% (vol/wt) on fresh weight basis. GC-FID and GC-MS analysis led to the identification of 83 chemical constituents accounting for 79.04%–99.7% of the total oil. The essential oils were rich in α-pinene (0.09%–58.55%), allo-aromadendrene (0.32%–24.54%), δ-cadinene (0.09%–22.17%), n-nonane (5.04%–16.23%), β-caryophyllene (0.08%–14.00%) and α-selinene (0.18%–20.64%). Agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC) and principal component analysis (PCA) grouped the essential oils of H. gaitii populations into three different chemotypes: chemotype I (α-pinene), chemotype II (allo-aromadendrene) and chemotype III (δ-cadinene). The result demonstrated that geographical origin of populations and environmental factors greatly influence the yield and chemical composition of the essential oil of H. gaitii. The chemical polymorphism detected in the studied populations would facilitate selection of genotypes with specific compounds or desired essential oil properties suitable for specific industrial applications and for conservation.

Keywords:

• Hypericum gaitii
• essential oil
• chemotypes
• α-pinene
• allo-aromadendrene
• δ-Cadinene

Acknowledgement

The authors are grateful to the Dean, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and President, Siksha 'O' Anusandhan (Deemed to be University) for providing necessary facilities to carry out the research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The work was financially supported by Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India [BT/Env/BC/01/2010].