Identification of Volatile Constituents from the Flower Oil of Spartium junceum

Journal of Essential Oil Research: JEOR, Nov/Dec 2004 by Miraldi, Elisabetta, Ferri, Sara, Giorgi, Gianluca

Abstract

The essential oil, isolated by hydrodistillation from fresh flowers of Spartium junceum L., was investigated by GC and GC/MS. The 24 main constituents of the samples were identified; the main components of the oil were kairomonal compounds, tricosane (22.9%), tetracosane (8.9%) and pentacosane (16.1%), constituting altogether almost 48% of total composition. These hydrocarbons constitute an important aspect governing the sensitivity of the insects in plant host selection.

Key Word Index

Spartium junceum, Papilionaceae, essential oil composition, tricosane, pentacosane.

Introduction

Spartium junceum L. (Papilionaceae) is a tall, thornless, deciduous shrub up to 3 m (sometimes taller in cultivation), with leaves sparse, simple, caducous, and flowers up to 2.5 cm, deep golden-yellow, in lax, terminal, crowded racemes up to 45 cm (1).

Native of the Mediterranean region, it occurs in its native range on dry, stony hillsides and in scrub, often on limestone in Europe, and has naturalized in similar habitats in California and in the Andes (2). A fiber from the stems is a hemp substitute; it is used to make thread, cordage and coarse fabrics. It is also used for stuffing pillows and the smaller stems are used in basket making. It also has medicinal properties: the young herbaceous tips of flowering shoots, harvested in spring, are cardiotonic, emetic and purgative; the entire plant is an efficacious and potent diuretic. For the same purposes, the seeds can also be used (3).

Spartium junceum is an unsafe herb, because of the cytisine content, causing serious intoxication. Recently, the production and distribution of alkaloids has been investigated in the different plant parts, at different stages of its life cycle (4,5). Yesilada et al. recorded the utilization of a flower infusion for the treatment of gastric ulcers in southern Anatolia (6); a recent study on S. junceum justified this traditional use, demonstrating the potent anti-ulcerogenic activity of the flowers, due to the presence of an oleanene-type saponin (7).

Spartiumjunceum is also commonly called "fragrant broom" because its flowers are fairly fragrant (8); they contain an oil, even if in low quantity. oil from the flowers is used in perfumery in order to have a complex mixture together with other essential oils or isolated components (9).

Until 1980, almost nothing was known about the chemical composition of genet. In that year, Shibainoto et al. (10) reported the chemical composition of the absolute. In the following years, Joulain (11) and Maupetit (12) described chemical constituents of genet by means of a static headspace analysis and by means of several fractionation techniques, combined with modern Chromatographie and spectroscopic techniques, respectively.

In this paper we present the major constituents of flower oil obtained by hydrodistillation from Tuscan specimens of Spartiumjunceum.

Materials and Methods

The analyses were carried out on samples of S. junceum fresh flowers, collected in full blooming in south-central Tuscany from wild plants found in hill country. Vouchers, identified by E. Miraldi, were deposited in the Herbarium of Siena University, Italy (SIENA).

Fresh flowers of S. junceum ( 100 g) were hydrodistilled for 4 h using a circulatory Clevenger-type apparatus; the oil yield was very low (

Analytical GC was carried out using a Varian CP-3800 GC equipped with an FID detector (T 230�C) or coupled with a Varian Saturn 2000 Ion Trap Mass Spectrometer (Varian, Walnut Creek, CA).

A DB-5 column (30 m � 0.25 mm, 0.20 �m film thickness, Supelco Inc., Bellefonte, PA) was employed, with helium as carrier gas (flow rate 1.0 mL/min). Samples were injected using the split sampling technique, ratio 1:50; sample amount injected was 0.5 �L; injection port temperature 250�C. Oven temperature was held at 50�C for 2 min, then programmed at 5�C/min up to 250�C, held there for 10 min and then again programmed at 10�C/min to 300�C. The MS operating parameters were: electron ionization 70 eV; source temperature 150�C; scan range 40-650 amu.

Identification of the constituents was carried out by comparing the retention times with those of reference compounds and peak-matching library search using the NBS/NIST and the LIBR(TP) libraries, and comparison of the MS data with those published in references works (13-15). Quantitative data were obtained from electronic integration of FID areas without the use of correction factors.

Results and Discussion

The volatile components identified in samples oiS.junceum oil are listed in Table I, together with the relative percentages, in order of their elution from the column. The values are expressed as the mean of at least three determinations.

Spartium junceum flowers are the source of an oil recommended for perfumery, though it is little used. The flowers have a fragrance that has been likened to oranges (16), so that it has been suggested to fit into the orange flower compound (17), The perfume industry prefers to use the absolute, because it has an intensely sweet, floral haylike fragrance (12), which blends well with vanilla, tobacco and violet fragrances.