Terpenoid composition of essential oil from a new chemotype of Selinum wallichianum Raizada & Saxena

Abstract

Essential oil samples obtained by steam distillation of the whole aerial parts and roots of Selinum wallichianum Raizada & Saxena (syn Selinum tenuifolium) growing wild in the Himalayan region of Uttarakhand, India, were analysed by capillary gas chromatography (GC-FID) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). A total of 24 and 43 constituents representing 97.0 and 95.4% of the oil composition, respectively, were identified. Both the oil samples were constituted mainly of monoterpene hydrocarbons 68.1 and 77.4%, with sabinene 31.0 and 11.5%, β-phellandrene 18.2 and 34.5%, α-bisabolol 16.0 and 1.8% and α-phellandrene 3.5 and 11.2%, respectively, as a major constituents. Presence of sabinene, β-phellandrene, α-phellandrene and complete absence of previously reported 3,5-nonadiyne (53.8–90.0%) justifies it to be a new chemotype of S. wallichianum.

Keywords:

• Selinum wallichianum
• essential oil
• chemotype
• sabinene
• phellandrenes
• α-bisabolol and 3,5-nonadiyne

Acknowledgements

We are thankful to the Botanical Survey of India, Dehradun for the identification of plant specimen and Advanced Instrumentation Research Facility (AIRF), Jawahar Lal Nehru University, New Delhi for the GC & GC-MS analyses of oil samples and Central Institute of Medicinal & Aromatic Plants (CIMAP), Lucknow for NMR and IR analysis. Deepshikha Joshi is grateful to UGC, New Delhi, for providing fellowship (Ref. No./F. 17/10/98 (SA-1) & 146,261).