Essential oils from Eucalyptus deglupta (Myrtaceae) cultivated in Costa Rica

Abstract

Eucalyptus is a Myrtaceous genus of flowering plants of about 700-800 species, mostly native to Australia. The aim of this work was to study the chemical composition of the essential oilsfrom the leaves, twigs and fruits of Eucalyptus deglupta cultivated in Costa Rica. The essential oils were obtained by hydrodistillation and the chemical composition of the oils wasanalyzed by capillary gas chromatography with a flame detector(GC-FID) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) using the retention indices (RI) on a DB-5 type capillary column. A total of 146compounds were identified, accounting for 94.1-96.0% of the total amountof the oils. The major constituents in the leaf oil were α-phellandrene (32.7%), α-pinene (16.8%), p-cymene (12.6%), limonene (5.2%), β-phellandrene (5.0%), (E)-nerolidol (4.4%), and β-pinene (4.0%).The twig oil consisted mainly of α-pinene (37.8%), p-cymene (19.6%), and β-pinene (6.3%). The most significant constituents of the fruit oil were α-phellandrene (20.4%), p-cymene (13.4%), β-pinene (8.9%), β-caryophyllene (5.1%), terpinolene (4.0%), and α-terpinyl acetate (3.9%).