Phytochemical Composition of Flower Essential Oil of Plumeria alba Grown in India

Abstract

Plumeria alba (Family: Apocynaceae), commonly known as temple tree/white frangipani is an ornamental, deciduous, tropical plant grown in landscape places, gardens, parks, and home premises for its beautiful and fragrant flowers. The different parts of white frangipani are traditionally used for the treatment of several diseases. This study was executed to identify the volatile constituents of the flower essential oil of P. alba from India, as this has not been studied to date. The essential oil composition was investigated through GC/MS analysis. The isolation of essential oil through the hydrodistillation method produced a yield of 0.05±0.01 %. A total of 46 volatile constituents were identified, representing 98.11±0.5 % of the total essential oil. The essential oil was rich in esters comprising 48.61±0.3 % of the essential oil followed by oxygenated monoterpene (15.41±0.1 %), oxygenated sesquiterpene (10.43±0.08 %) and sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (10.39±0.1 %), etc. The dominant components of the essential oil were benzyl salicylate (33.98±0.04 %), benzyl benzoate (12.37±0.03 %), germacrene B (10.30±0.05 %), and linalool (8.17±0.11 %). Other notable constituents identified in the essential oil were (2Z,6Z)-farnesol, n-heneicosane, n-nonadecane, (Z, E)-geranyl linalool, trans-sabinene hydrate acetate, (2E,6Z)-farnesol, α-terpineol, n-docosane, geranyl benzoate, n-tricosane, α-bisabolol, nerol and 8-cedren-13-ol, etc. (1.17 % - 4.76 %).