chemical composition of the essential oils from the leaves, bark and fruits of Bursera simaruba (L.) Sarg. from Jamaica

• Published in: The Journal of essential oil research 2008-09, Vol.20 (5), p.426-429
• Main Authors: Junor, Grace-Ann O, Porter, Roy B.R, Yee, Trevor H
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: alpha-humulene; alpha-pinene; aqueous solutions; bark; beta-caryophyllene; beta-pinene; Bursera simaruba; Burseraceae; chemical analysis; chemical constituents of plants; distillation; essential oil composition; essential oils; extraction; fruits (plant anatomy); gamma-terpinolene; gas chromatography; iso-sylvestrene; leaves; limonene; mass spectrometry; sabinene; sesquiterpenoids; terpinen-4-ol; terpinolene; α-pinene; β-pinene
• ISSN: 1041-2905; 2163-8152
• DOI: 10.1080/10412905.2008.9700048

Oils of the leaves, bark and fruits of Bursera simaruba collected from the Long Mountain region of Jamaica were isolated by hydrodistillation and analyzed by GC-FID and GC/MS. From our analyses of the oils from the leaves, bark and fruits 46, 54 and 19 components were identified which constituted 93.6%, 97.9% and 100% of the total oils. The leaf oils were dominated by sesquiterpenes (70.1%), the major ones being trans-cadina-1(6),4-diene (9.7%) followed by β-caryophyllene (9.0%), α-humulene (6.2%), β-elemene (5.6%) α-cadinol (4.7%), α-selin-11-en-4-ol (4.2%), caryophyllene oxide (3.2%) and δ-selinene (3.1%). The major monoterpenes were α-pinene (10.2%), myrcene (5.2%) and β-pinene (3.4%). The major monoterpene components of the bark were α-pinene (32.1%), β-pinene (13.5%) and isolimonene (5.6%) while the major sesquiterpenes were viridiflorol (7.1%), β-caryophyllene (4.9%), β-selinene (4.3%), α-humulene (3.1%) and caryophyllene oxide (3.1%). The fruit oil was characterized by a high portion of monoterpenes, the major ones being α-pinene (27.8%), β-pinene (24.1%), terpinen-4-ol (13.3%), sabinene (8.1%), iso-sylvestrene (4.9%), limonene (4.4%) and γ-terpinolene (3.5%).