Chemical composition of the essential oil from rhizomes, leaves and flowers of Zingiber zerumbet Smith from Reunion Island

Journal of Essential Oil Research: JEOR, May/Jun 2003 by Chane-Ming, Jimmy, Vera, Robert, Chalchat, Jean-Claude

Abstract

Sixty-nine constituents were identified in essential oil from the rhizomes, leaves and flowers of Zi ni;iber-zerumbet Smith from Reunion Island. The oils were obtained by steam distillation. The oils obtained from rhizomes were rich in zer-umbone (37%), alpha-humulene (14.4%) and camphene (13.8%). The oils from leaves and flowers differed appreciably from that from rhizomes by the presence of large amounts of (E)-nerolidol (21.4% and 34.9%), beta-- caryophyllene (6.9% and 10.2%), and linalool (7.7% and 17.1%), respectively. The leaf oils differed from the others by their high levels of a- and S-pinenes (10.3% and 31.4%, respectively).

Key Word Index

Zingiberzerumbet, Zingiberaceae, essential oil composition, zerumbone, alpha-humulene, camphene, (E)-nerolidol, beta-caryophyllene, linalool, alpha-pinene, beta-pinene.

Introduction

Zingiber zerumbet Smith, called "pain ginger" or "horse ginger" on Reunion Island, occurs throughout the Southeast Asia-Pacific area. It was brought to the Mascarene Islands at an unknown date (1).

The plant that grows from the rhizome comprises two stems, one sterile, 30-80 cm long, and one flower bearing, 1530 cm long. The flowers are pale yellow. The fruit is a white capsule bearing numerous black seeds.

Originally an Indian plant, Z. zerumbet is grown in tropical and subtropical areas for use in local pharmacopoeias and as a marketable spice. On Reunion Island, it is cultivated by vegetative propagation at a minimal altitude of 950 in with 1,800 mm of annual rainfall and a temperature of 21 deg C. The harvest is in September to December.

It is used to treat stomach aches in Indonesian traditional medicine under the name Jamu (2). In Polynesia it is an ingredient of several medical preparations used to treat ear inflammation and diarrhea (3). On Reunion Island Z. zerumbet is grown only in gardens and is used to treat severe sprains in horses and to relieve rhumatic pain.

The rhizome oil of Z. zeruibet has been the subject of many studies, especially in India. Dev (4) isolated and determined the structure of zerumbone. Nigam and Levi (5) identified, among other constituents, alphaa-humulene, zerumbone, and humulene monoxide. Domodaran and Dev (6-8) characterized humulene oxides I, II and III, humulenols I and II, caryophyllene oxide, beta-caryophyllene, dihydrophotozerumbone and photozerumbone. Chhbra et al. (9) found zerumbone epoxide. In an oil from Fiji, Duve (10) found higher levels of zerumbone (59%) than those reported in Indian oils (38%). Lechat-Vahirua et al. (11) showed Polynesian oils to be similar to those from Fiji. More recently, Dung et al. (12,13) found high proportions of (Z)-nerolidol (22-36%), which was absent from rhizomes, in extracts of stems, leaves and flowers, and found zerumbone to predominate in leaves. Srivastava et al. (14) found in similar proportions curzerenone (14.4%), zerumbone (12.6%) and camphor (12.8%).

The characteristics of the oils from the rhizomes, leaves and flowers of Z. zerumbet allow them to be identified unequivocally. Thus zeruinbone predominated in rhizome oil (36.9%) but is practically absent from the other two oils, whereas beta-pinene (31.4%) is specific to the leaf oil, and (E)-- nerolidol characterizes both leaf oil (21.4%) and flower oil (34.9%) in the samples from Reunion Island.

In addition, zingiberene was present in only the flowers and leaves, whereas 2-methyl-6-methylenocta-1,7-dien-3-one was specific to the flower oil. Lastly, the high proportions of linalool (17.1%) measured in the flower oil compared with those noted in rhizome and leaf oil (1.3% and 7.6%) probably contributed to the floral scent of this oil.

In this work we have determined the specific features of the oils of different parts of the plant Z. zerumbet. These features allow it to be identified and classified among the other ginger oils available on the international market.

References

1. Th. Cadet, Flore des Mascareignes, La Reunion, Maurice Rodrigues, Paris, Office de la Recherche Scientifique et Technique d'Outre-Mer, 171-176, p 1-15 (1983).

2. H.1. Burkill, Dictionary of the economic products of the Malay Peninsula, Ministry of Agric. and Coop., Kuala Lumpur, p 2345 (1966).

3. P. Petard, Quelques plantes utiles de la Polynesie et Ra'au Tahiti, Papeete: Haere Po no Tahiti, 1986.

4. S. Dev, Sesquiterpenes. XVI. Zerumbone, a monocyclic sesquiterpene ketone. Tetrahedron, 8, 171-180 (1960).

5. LC. Nigam and L. Levi, Column and gas chromatographic analysis of oil of wild ginger. Identification and estimation of some new constituents. Can. J. Chem., 41, 1726-1730 (1963).

6. N.P. Damodaran and S. Dev, Studies in sesquiterpenes - XXXIX. Structure of humulenols. Tetrahedron, 24, 4133-4142 (1968).

7. N.P. Damodaran and S. Dev, Studies in sesquiterpenes - XXXVII. Sesquiterpenoids from the essential oil of Zingiber zerumbet Smith. Tetrahedron, 24, 4113-4122 (1968).

B. N.P. Damodaran and S. Dev, Studies in sesquiterpenes - XXXVIII. Structure of humulene epoxide-I and humulene epoxide-11. Tetrahedron, 24, 4123-4132 (1968).