Terpenoids and aromatic compounds from essential oils of Cruciata laevipes and C. glabra

Abstract

In continuation of the study of representatives of the family Rubiaceae, we investigated the composition of essential oils of herb two species of the genus Cruciata Mill. These were C. laevipes Opiz. (or Galium cruciata Scop.) and C. glabra (L.) Ehrend. (or Galium vernum Scop.). Previous investigations of these species detected iridoids, coumarins, flavonoids, anthraquinones, and tanning agents [1]. Raw material for the production of essential oils consisted of ground upper parts of stems with leaves and flowers collected during flowering in May-June 2011 in Ivano-Frankov Region of Ukraine (herbarium specimens No. 16/11 and No. 17/11 are preserved at the Pharmacognosy Department, NPU). Essential oil was produced by steam distillation with subsequent treatment of the distillate with high-purity pentane. This isolated essential oil contained in minor or trace amounts in the plant raw material [2]. The constituent composition of essential oil was determined on an Agilent Technology 6890N chromatograph with a 5973N mass-spectrometric detector. The analytical conditions were published earlier [3]. Compounds were identified by comparing their mass spectra from chromatography with those of standards and with data in the Wiley 2007 and NIST05 mass spectra libraries in combination with AMDIS and NIST programs for identification. We found that air-dried herb of C. glabra contained 0.08% essential oil in which 45 compounds were detected. Of these, 35 were identified as terpenoids (11), aromatic compounds (4), higher hydrocarbons (8), higher fatty acids and their esters (11), and fatty aldehydes (1) (Table 1).