Volatile constituents of the leaves of Ziziphus spinachristi (L.) Willd. from Bushehr, Iran

Journal of Essential Oil Research: JEOR, May/Jun 2003 by Ghannadi, Alireza, Tavakoli, Naser, Mehri-Ardestani, Mozhgan

Abstract

The chemical composition of the oil of Ziziphus spina-christi (L.) Willd. leaves obtained by hydrodistillation were examined by capillary GC and GC/MS. Thirty-four components were characterized, representing 92.2% of the oil. The main components in the oil were geranyl acetone (14.0%), methyl hexadecanoate (10.0%), methyl octadecanoate (9.9%), farnesyl acetone C (9.9%), hexadecanol (9.7%) and ethyl octadecanoate (8.0%).

Key Word Index

Ziziphus spina-christi, Rhamnaceae, essential oil composition, geranyl acetone, methyl hexadecanoate

Plant Name

Ziziphus spina-christi (L.) Willd. (Rhamnaweae) (1,2).

Source

Spina-christi is a tree indigenous to the south of Iran. The leaves of this plant, which are locally known as "Sedr" and "Konar," have been used for washing the hair and body. Plant leaves are also used in Iranian folk medicine as an antiseptic, antifungal and anti-inflammatory agent, and for healing skin diseases such as atopic dermatitis (3,4).

Plant Part

Spina-christi leaves were collected from Bushehr province, Iran, in April 1999. A voucher specimen has been deposited in the Herbarium of the Department of Pharmacognosy, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.

The oil was isolated bv hydrodistillation of the powdered, dried leaves for 3 h according to the method recommended in European Pharmacopoeia (5) to produce an oil in 0.1% yield.

Previous Work

Literature search has not revealed any previous work on the leaf oil of the plant, but there are several reports on other chemical constituents and pharmacological properties of the plant (6-14).

Present Work

The oil was analyzed by GC and GC/MS. GC analysis was carried out on a Perkin-Elmer gas chromatograph Model 8500, equipped with a FID detector and a BP-1 capillary column (30 m x 0.25 mm, film thickness 0.25 (mu)m). The operating conditions were as follows: carrier gas, helium with a flow rate of 2 mL/min; column temperature, 60 deg-275 deg C at 4 deg C /min; injector and detector temperatures, 280 deg C; volume injected, 0.1 (mu)L of the oil; split ratio, 1:50.

GC/MS analysis was performed on an HP 6890 mass selective detector coupled with an HP 6890 gas chromatograph, equipped with a cross-linked 5% PHME siloxane HP-5MS capillary column (30 in x 0.25 mm, film thickness 0.25 (mu)m) and operating under the same conditions as described above. The MS operating parameters were as follows: ionization potential, 70 et ionization current, 2A; ion source temperature, 200 deg C; resolution, 1000. The oil constituents were identified by matching their mass spectra with the Whey 275. Lib. and reported data in literature (15-17). The percentage composition of the oil was computed from GC peak areas without using correction factors. The identified constituents are shown in Table I.

Thirty-four constituents were identified, which comprised 92.2% of the total oil. Geranyl acetone (14.0%), methyl hexadecanoate (10.0%), methyl octadecanoate (9.9%), farnesyl acetone C (9.9%), hexadecanol (9.7%) and ethyl octadecanoate (8.0%) were found to be the major constituents.

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to M. Norouzi (Herbarium Department, Iranian Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands, Isfahan, Iran) for the identification of the plant, and indebted to Bar!j Essence Co. (Kashan, Iran) for financial support

References

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