Composition of the essential oil and the hydrosol of the roots of Ligusticum porteri

Abstract

Monoterpenes and monoterpenes derivatives constitute the main part of the essential oil of the roots of Ligusticum porteri. Sabinene (9.0-15.5%) and p-cymene (6.5-9.7%) are the main compounds of monoterpene hydrocarbons along with a rather unusual compound: viridene (19.4%). trans-Sabinyl acetate (22.6%) is by far the most important oxygenated monoterpene. Several compounds are observed among the sesquiterpene group with percentage generally lower than 1%. The most important compound in one sample is thapsadiene (0.6%) and in the second sample is -selinene (0.7%). Finally, several recently described oxygenated sesquiterpenoids are among the minor compounds. The most important are: -prethapsenol (1.7-3.3%), -preisothapsenol (0.8-1.6%) and β- isoligustigrenol (0.6-1.3%) along with (Z)-ligustilide (0.7%). The hydrosol does not show the presence of hydrocarbon compounds. However, oxygenated compounds such as terpinen-4-ol (16.5 mg/L), including some compounds not observed in the oil such as hexanal (2.5 mg/L), furfural (2.0 mg/L) and p-cymen-8ol (2.5 mg/L), are observed in the hydrosol.