Chemical Composition of the Hydrosol and the Essential Oil of Three Different Species of the Pinaceae Family : Picea glauca (Moench) Voss., Picea mariana (Mill.) B.S.P., and Abies balsamea (L.) Mill.

Abstract

The chemical composition of the oils and hydrosols collected from wild plantations of three species of the Pinaceae family of conifers in the Grondines region of the province of Quebec, Canada, were determined by GC-FID and GC-MS analyses. The components obtained from the hydrosol of Picea glauca (Moench) Voss., (White Spruce) were mainly monoterpene alcohols, aldehydes and ketones. The major compound by far was camphor (65 %) with borneol (10 %) as an important minor constituent. In contrast, the essential oil was composed mainly of β-pinene (20 %) and camphor (20 %) followed by α-pinene (12 %) and bornyl acetate (12 %). Bornyl acetate (34.2 %) was the main compound identified in the Picea mariana (Mill.) B.S.P., (Black Spruce) oil and monoterpenes, mainly α-pinene (12.9 %) and camphene (16.4 %), constituted at least 45 % of the oil. On the contrary, due to their very low water solubility, monoterpene hydrocarbons were barely present in the hydrosol in which alcohols were the main components. They were oc-terpineol and borneol (each ˜14 %), terpinen-4-ol and camphene hydrate (each ˜6 %) as well as several aliphatic alcohols (cis-3-hexen-1-ol - 6.5 %). Bornyl acetate was also a significant component (7.8 %). Monoterpenes were the main components of the essential oil of Abies balsamea (L.) Mill. (Canadian Fir oil). They were β-pinene (33.5 %), Δ3-carene (14 %), oc-pinene (11.3 %) as well as limonene and β-phellandrene (each ˜7 %). Bornyl acetate was also a significant component (10 %). α-terpineol (˜41 %) was by far the main component observed in the hydrosol followed by borneol (6.4 %). Of particular interest was the presence of maltol (˜15 %). To our knowledge, this is the first report on the hydrosol composition obtained from a coniferous tree.