Volatile Oil of Alpinia galanga Willd. of Sri Lanka

Abstract

The volatile oil of rhizomes of Alpinia galanga (Family: Zingiberaceae) was analyzed by GC and GC/MS. Sixteen compounds accounting for 87% of the essential oil were identified. The major constituent was zerumbone (44.8%). This is the first report of zerumbone in A. galanga and the composition of A. galanga rhizome oil of Sri Lankan origin.

Key Word Index

Alpinia galanga , Zingiberaceae, essential oil composition, zerumbone.

Introduction

Alpinia galanga Willd.(Family: Zingiberaceae) grows in Sri Lanka, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and several other countries (1,2). It is commonly known as "greater galanga" and reported to be used as emmenagogue, aphrodisiac, abortifacient, carminative, antipyretic, anti-inflammatory and in the treatment of bronchitis, heart diseases, chronic enteritis, kidney stones, diabetes, rheumatism, etc. (1-5). Though chemical studies on this plant have been carried out (6-10) the chemical constituents of A. galanga grown in Sri Lanka are not known. Therefore, this study on the od was undertaken.

Experimental

The wild plant material was collected from Nawinna and identified at the Herbarium of Botanical gardens, Peradeniya, where a specimen has been deposited. Standard samples of terpenes were obtained from Haarmann & Reimer, Holzminden, Germany.

Oil isolation: Dried and crushed rhizomes were hydrodistdled for 4 h using a Clevenger-type apparatus to obtain the essential oil (0.56%).

GC analysis: The oil was dried over anhydrous sodium sulphate and analyzed by using Shimadzu 14 B gas Chromatograph equipped widi FID using capdlary Supelcowax TM 10 column (30 m x 0.25 mm with a coating of 0.25 µm), Carrier gas: Argon (1.5 ml/min), Temperature program (60°-220°C at 5°C/min). Using standard samples, peak enhancement experiments were carried out for the oil sample.

GC/MS analysis: GC/MS was carried out by using HP 5890 - 2 model GC equipment with Restek RTX - 5 column (30 m longand0.25 mm diameterwithacoatingdiickness of 1 micron) and Jeol SX102A Mass equipment. The temperature was kept at 4O0C for 2 min and programmed at 10°C/min up to 280°C and the temperature was held for 10 min. The identification of the constituents was based on computer matching against the library spectra compded from pure substances, retention time and NMR data wherever possible.

Results and Discussion

The results are given in the Table I. The major constituent in the oil was identified as zerumbone (44.9%) using MS and ^sup 1^H- ^sup 13^C-DEPT and COSY NMR data. This is the first report of zerumbone in A. galanga and also the first report of the composition of A. galanga essential oil grown in Sri Lanka. The major constituents in A. galanga oils from Malaysia, India and Indonesia were found to be β-farnesene , myrcene and 1,8 cineole respectively (6-10). Thus the A. galanga of Sri Lankan origin is a new chemotype.

Acknowledgments

Financial assistance by NSF Grant No. SIDA (IL) 2000/BT/03 is acknowledged.

References

1. D.M. Jayaweera, Medicinal plants used in Ceylon, 5, ? 215, National Science Council of Sri Lanka (1982).

2. Wealth of India, (Raw materials) Vol 1 p196 CISIR, New Delhi, India (1985).

3. J.L.C.H.Vaikenberg and N. Bunyapraphatsara, Plant Resources of South East Asia 12(2), 58 Medicinal and Poisonous Plants2 Bachus Publishers, Leiden (2001).

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5. M. Mokkasmit, W. Ngarmwanthana, K. Swadimongkol and U. Permphat, Pharmacological Evaluation of Thai Medicinal Plants. J. Med. Assoc, Thailand, 54,490(1971).

6. G. R. Mallavarapu. L.Rao, S. Ramesh, B.P. Dimri, B.R.R. Rao, RN. Kaul and A.K. Bhattacharya, Composition of the volatile oils of Alpinia galanga rhizomes and leaves from India J. Essent. Oil Res., 14, 397-399 (2002).

7. K. Kubota, Y. Someya, R. Yoshida, A. Kobayashi.T Morita and H. Koshimo, Enantiomeric purity and odor characreristics of 2-and 3-acetoxy-1, 8-cineoles in the rhizomes of Alpinia galanga WiIId. J.Agric. Food Chem., 47(2), 685-689 (1999).

8. H.L.Pooter, M.N.Omar, B.A.Coolsaet and N.M.Schamp, The essential oil of greater galanga (Alpinia galanga,) from Malaysia Phytochemistry, 24, 93-96(1985).

9. D.J.Charles, J.E.Simon and N.K.Singh, The essential oil of Alpinia galanga Wild. J. Essent.Oil Res., 4, 81-82 (1992).

10. J.C.Schetfer, A.Gani and A.B.Svendsen, Monoterpenes in the essential rhizome oil of Alpinia galanga (L)WiIId. Sci. Pharm., 49, 337-346 (1981).

Lakshmi S. R. Arambewela,* and Menuka Arawwawala,

Industrial Technology Institute, 363, Bauddhaloka Mawatha , Colombo 7 Sri Lanka

Noel L. Owen and Bruce Jarvis,

Department of Chemistry &- Biochemistry, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah 84602 USA

* Address for correspondence

Received: March 2006

Revised: July 2006

Accepted: August 2006

1041-2905/07/0005-0455$14.00/0-© 2007 Allured Publishing Corp.

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