Constituents of the Essential Oil of Echinophora platyloba DC. Growing Wild in Iran

Journal of Essential Oil Research: JEOR, Jul/Aug 2004 by Mazloomifar, Hefzollah, Saber-Tehrani, Mohammad, Rustaiyan, Abdolhossein, Masoudi, Shiva

Abstract

The composition of the essential oil obtained by hydrodistillation from aerial parts of Echinophoraplatyloba DC., a native plant of Iran, was analyzed by GC/MS. Twenty-nine components were characterized representing 95.3% of the oil. (E)-[beta]-ocimene (49.9%) was the main constituent of the oil, followed by [gamma]-decalactone (8.4%), [alpha]-pinene (6.0%) and linalool (5.6%).

Key Word Index

Echinophora platyloba, Umbelliferae, essential oil composition, (E)-[beta]-ocimene, [gamma]-decalactone.

Plant Name

Echinophora platyloba DC., Umbelliferae (1).

Source

Plant material was collected during the flowering period from Damavand, Province of Tehran, Iran, in June 1999. A voucher specimen has been deposited in the Herbarium of the Department of Botany, Shaheed Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.

Plant Part

Dried aerial parts (180 g) were water-distilled for 3 h using a Clevenger-type apparatus to yield 1.3% w/w of oil.

Previous Work

The genus Echinophora is represented in the flora of Iran by four species including two endemics. These are: E. orientalis Hedge et Lamond and E. sibthorpiana Guss, and two endemic species: E. cinerea (Boiss.) and E. platyloba DC. (1). The Mediterranean and Middle East regions seem to be the only areas where this genus is established. The composition of the oil of some Echinophora species is described in the literature (2-5). For example, the oil of E. tenuifolia ssp. sihthorpiana was found to contain methyl eugenol (58.7%) and a-phellandrene (15.5%); the oil of E. tournefortii contained caryophyllene oxide (12.8%) and [alpha]-pinene (9.6%); the oil of E. chrysantha contained [alpha]-phellandrene (47.7%) and [beta]-phellandrene (8.2%); the oil of E. trichophylla contained sabinene (27.3%); the oil of E. carvifolia contained germacrene D (31.1%); and the oil of E. orientalis contained myrcene (34.2%) and p-cymene (18.9%) (2). Earlier, it was reported that the oil of aerial parts of E. spinosa contained a-phellandrene (36.8%) whereas the root oil contained predominantly terpinolene (77.2%) (4). Recently, Baser et al. reported that the oil of E. lamondiana contained [delta]-3-carene (48.0%) and [alpha]-phellandrene (27.7%) as major components (5).

In this paper, we describe the chemical composition of the oil of E. platyloba, which is endemic to Iran, for the first time.

Present Work

The oil was analyzed by GC/MS using a Hewlett-Packard 5973 mass selective connected with an HP 6890 gas chromatograph. The separation was achieved by capillary column, HP-5ms (5% phenylmethylpolysiloxane) (30 m � 0.25 mm, 0.25 �m film thickness). The column temperature was kept at 60�C for 20 min and programmed to 220�C at a rate of 5�C/min, and kept constant at 220�C for 20 min. The flow rate of helium as carrier gas was 1 mL/min. MS was taken at 7O eV.

The identification of the constituents was made by comparing their mass spectra and retention indices with those given in the literature and those of authentic samples (6). Relative percentage amount were calculated from TIC by the computer. As it is shown in Table I, ca. 95.3% (29 compounds) of the oil was identified. It also shows that the oil consisted mainly of monoterpene compounds and was rich in (E)-[beta]-ocimene (49.9%). The other main constituents were [delta]-decalactone (8.4%), [alpha]-pinene (6.0%) and linalool (5.6%).

Acknowledgment We are grateful to V. Mozaffarian for help in identifying plant material.

References

1. K.H. Rechinger, Echinophora, In: Flora lranica, Umbelliferae. No. 162. Edits., K.H. Rechinger and I.C. Hedge, p. 69, Akademische Druckend Verlagsantalt, Graz, Austria (1987).

2. K.H.C. Baser, M. Kurkcuoglu, H. Malyerand A. Bicakci, Essential oils of six Echinophora species from Turkey. J. Essent. oil Res., 10,345-351 (1998).

3. A. Akgul and F. Chialva, Constituents of the essential oils of Echinophora tenuifolia L. subsp. sibthorpiana (Guss.) Tutin from Turkey. Flav. Fragr. J.,4, 67-68(1989).

4. K.H. Kubeczka, Chemical investigation of essential oils of umbe/iifers. World Crops. Prod., Util., Descr., 7, 165-173 (1982).

5. K. H.C. Baser, A. Bicakci and H. Malyer, Composition of the essential oil of Echinophora /amondiana B. Yildis et Z. Bahceciglu. J. Essent. oil Res., 12, 147-148(2000).

6. R.P. Adams, Identification of essential oil components by gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy. Allured Publishing Corp., Carol Stream, IL, USA (1995).

Hefzollah Mazloomifar, Mohammad Saber-Tehrani and Abdolhossein Rustaiyan*

Department of Chemistry, Science and Research campus, Islamic Azad University, PO Box 14515-775, Tehran, Iran

Shiva Masoudi

Department of Chemistry, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

* Address for correspondence

1041-2905/04/0004-0284$6.00/0-� 2004 Allured Publishing Corp.

Received: March 2001

Revised: August 2001

Accepted: October 2001