Constituents of the essential oils ofCinnamomum sintoc Blume from a mountain forest of Peninsular Malaysia

Abstract

The leaf, twig, bark and wood oils of Cinnamomum sintoc Blume from a mountain forest of peninsular Malaysia were analysed by GC and GC-MS. Safrole (23.4%) and γ-muurolene (13.5%) were the major components of the leaf oil. Other compounds present in appreciable amounts in the oil were eugenol, linalool, terpinen-4-ol, α-cadinol, germacrene D, α-terpineol and δ-cadinene. The most abundant component of the bark oil was linalool (23.8%). Sesquiterpenes accounted for 25.2% of the oil with α-copaene, allo-aromadendrene, γ-muurolene and cubenol present in appreciable amounts. The bark oil was also rich in aldehydes where tetradecanal (16.4%) was the major representative. The wood oil was similar to the bark oil in the content of aldehydes but the concentration of each component was different. The oil also contained appreciable amount of acids (27.9%), represented by octadecanoic acid, pentadecanoic acid, hexadecanoic acid and tetradecanoic acid. The twig oil could be a natural source of linalool as it constituted 52.9% of the oil. Other major components of the oil were methyl (Z)-cinnamate and its E-isomer, which were both present at 6.0% concentration. The chemical composition of the oils in the present study was markedly different from those previously reported on C. sintoc collected from two different locations, suggesting the existence of intraspecific chemical races within the species. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.