Essential oils of Dacryodes edulis (G. Don) H. J. Lam (African pear)

✍ Scribed by Patricia A. Onocha; Olusegun Ekundayo; Oyeleye Oyelola; Into Laakso

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 90 KB
• Volume: 14
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0882-5734
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1026(199903/04)14:2<135::aid-ffj788>3.0.co;2-l

✦ Synopsis

Essential oils from the leaves, fruits, stem-and root-bark of Dacryodes edulis (G. Don) H. J. Lam (African pear) were obtained by hydrodistillation. The volatile oils were subjected to analysis by means of gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography±mass spectrometry (GC±MS). A total of 64 components were identi®ed in the four essential oils. Qualitative and quantitative dierences in the essential oil composition were observed. Myrcene (45.3%) was the dominant constituents of the fruit oil and b-caryophyllene (26.4%) of the leaf oils. The stem-bark essential oil contained predominantly terpinen-4-ol (25.6%) and a mixture of a-thujene and a-pinene (25.2%), whilst a-phellandrene was the major component of the root-bark oil. Of the 33 components amounting to 83.3% of the total leaf oil composition, only four have previously been identi®ed in this plant, while only three of the 23 stem-bark oil components have been previously reported. The detailed compositional features of the fruit and root-bark volatile oils are being reported for the ®rst time.