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Aroma compounds of essential oils of two varieties of the spice plant Ocimum canum Sims from northern Cameroon

Ocimum canum Sims ( Lamiaceae) is a well-known spice in Cameroon (locally named “cotimajo”), in Africa and in Asia, where the aerial plant parts are used, for example, to flavour fish soup. The essential oils of flowers and leaves of two varieties (chemotypes) of O. canum from Cameroon were analysed...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of food composition and analysis 2004-04, Vol.17 (2), p.197-204
Main Authors: Ngassoum, Martin B., Ousmaila, H., Ngamo, Leonard T., Maponmetsem, Pierre M., Jirovetz, Leopold, Buchbauer, Gerhard
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Ocimum canum Sims ( Lamiaceae) is a well-known spice in Cameroon (locally named “cotimajo”), in Africa and in Asia, where the aerial plant parts are used, for example, to flavour fish soup. The essential oils of flowers and leaves of two varieties (chemotypes) of O. canum from Cameroon were analysed by GC, GC/MS and olfactometry. The significant odour impression of the essential O. canum leaf oil of type-I is an intense floral-fruity aroma (direction of lavender, rose and citrus), while the essential oils of leaves and flowers of O. canum of variety II show intense fresh-fruity (direction of eucalyptus and citrus) odour notes with pinene-like and warm-spicy-woody (cadinene-like) side notes. The essential O. canum leaf oil of type I is characterized by a high percentage of monoterpene alcohols (total 91.9%), represented especially by linalool (44.9%) and geraniol (38.2%). The essential leaf and flower oils of O. canum from type-II contain less oxygenated monoterpenes (total about 25.0% and 30.9%), but more monoterpene hydrocarbons (total about 61.3–24.1%) and sesquiterpene derivatives (total about 13.2–44.0%) with the main components limonene (41.5% and 5.7%) 1,8-cineole (10.1% and 18.5%), δ-cadinene (4.0% and 18.0%), α-pinene (4.7% and 10.2%) and α-terpineol (6.9% and 6.4%).
ISSN:0889-1575
1096-0481
DOI:10.1016/j.jfca.2003.08.002