Agriculture Locations Induced Variations in The Essential Oil of Valencia Orange

Abstract

Changes of Valencia orange essential oils were evaluated under different agricultural locations (north, west and south) in Egypt. Essential oils of leaves, flowers and peels that were collected from different locations were isolated by hydro-distillation and analyzed by GC/MS. Leaf and peel samples that were collected from the south location resulted in the maximum contents ( % and ml/ 250 g) of their essential oils with the values of 0.4 %, 1.0 ml/250 g and 0.7 %, 1.8 ml/250 g, respectively. No variations were detected in the content of flower essential oil. Sabinene was the major component of leaf essential oil, while the main component of flower essen- tial oil was nerol; limonene was the major component in peel essential oil. Detected components of various essential oils belonged to four chemical groups which are monoterpene hydrocarbons (MH), oxygenated monoterpenes (OM), sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (SH) and oxygenated sesquiterpenes (OS). MH was the major group in leaf and peel essential oils while OM was the major group in flower essential oil. The maximum values of sabinene (33.6 %) and nerol (33.8 %) were recorded in the samples collected from the west location. The greatest amount (82.1 %) of limonene was obtained from samples collected from the south location. Peel samples that were harvested from the north location produced the greatest amounts of MH (88.7 %) and OM (59.6 %).