Geographical location and harvest time dependent variation in the composition of essential oils of Jasminum sambac. (L.) Aiton
Rao, Y Ramachandra
Abstract
Analysis of the essential oil of the flowers of Jasminum sambac L. distilled in three locations in India showed that considerable variation in the composition occurred. Variation in the composition of the oil recovered from buds collected in the morning and late in the day has also been observed.
Key Word Index
Jasminum sambac, Oleacea, essential oil composition, (E,E)-[alpha]-hexenyl benzoate, (E,E)-[alpha]-farnesene, linalool, benzyl acetate.
Introduction
Jasminum sambac (L.) Aiton, commonly called ‘Arabian jasmine,’ is one among the many species of jasmine. It is an evergreen plant growing up to 1-1.5 m in height. The bush is more shrubby and woody, and the flower petals thicker and more waxy than J. grandiflorum. Jasminum sambac is popularly known as ‘moonlight of the grove’ because the flowers open up releasing the fullness of the fragrance at midnight. Though flowering occurs throughout the year, the peak season starts in March and continues up to July (1).
Jasminum sambac is grown throughout South India as a garden plant for the flowers. It is commercially cultivated in Tamilnadu, Andhara Pradesh and Karnataka. In North India, it is known as ‘Bela’ and is traditionally cultivated in Ghazipur area for oil and attar production (2).
The isolation method of the volatile constituents of the jasmine flowers has a profound effect not only on the composition but also on the oliactory value of the oil. While jasmine concrete and absolute are produced by solvent extraction, attars and oils are produced by steam or hydrodistillation (3,4). Originally produced in this way at Ghajipur and Kannauj in North India, the practice is followed at Vijayawada and Saluru in the southern province of Andhra Pradesh.
The composition of the oil may depend not only on the method of processing, but also on other factors such as the geographical location of the growing area, temperature and amount of exposure of the flowers to the sun, time of plucking the buds and others (5,6). Although the analysis of oil from J. grandiflorum has been the subject of study of several workers (4,7,8), it is only more recently that J. sambac has drawn attention (7,9-12). We have recently collected oil samples of J. sambac, produced at Vijayawada (16.5 lat, 80.5° long), Saluru (18.5° lat, 83° long) and Kannauj (27° lat, 79.8° long) and report here the composition of these oils. We have also collected the decanted and cohobated oils (13) from the aqueous distillates separately from flowers of morning-plucked buds and those plucked during the day and report here, a comparison of the composition of these oils.
Experimental
The oils were collected from distillers at Saluru, Vijayawada and Kannauj. Decanted and cohobated oils were collected from Saluru. Mature buds plucked in the morning hours were brought to the distillery in open baskets and were allowed to breathe in thin layers on a clean floor until they opened. The buds were intermittently tossed to take away the enormous heat produced during breathing. The freshly opened flowers were then used for distillation with water in the traditional way. One hundred kg of fresh flowers were charged into a copper cauldron to which about 801 of water was added. After setting the system for distillation, the retort was heated with a wood fire so as to set the distillation at a rate of 5-61/h. When about 8-9 l were collected, the distillation was discontinued, the receiver was changed and the distillation renewed to collect about 20 l of distillation water for use with another batch. From the first distillate, the oil separated was decanted and the aqueous layer was redistilled to collect the cohobated oil. The ratio in the yield of decanted to cohobated oils was about 1:3. Usually, the decanted and cohobated oils are bulked together before transporting to actual users. Samples of decanted and cohobated oils obtained by distillation of flowers from buds picked in the morning and those picked in the afternoon were collected separately for analysis.
GC analysis was carried out on a Shimadzu GC 17A gas chromatograph equipped with an FID and a 25 m x 0.25 m, 0.25 µm film thickness WCOT column coated with 5% diphenyl dimethyl silicone supplied by J&W (DB-5). Helium was used as the carrier gas at a flow rate of 1.2 mL/min at a column pressure of 42 kPa. Component separation was achieved following a linear temperature programme (from 60°-200°C at 2°C/min, then for 10 min at 200°C). The percentage composition was calculated using the peak normalization method. The oils were analyzed using a Shimadzu QP5000 GC/MS fitted with the same column and temperature programme as above; MS parameters: ionization voltage (EI) 70 eV. Peak identification was carried out by comparison of the mass spectra with mass spectra available on NIST-1, NIST-2 and Adams libraries. The compound identification was finally confirmed by comparison of their relative retention indices (14-17) with literature values. These data are presented in Tables I and II.
Results and Discussion
It can be seen from the data presented in Tables I and II that considerable variation in the composition of the oils distilled in the three geographical locations was found. Variation was also observed in the composition of oils recovered from flowers picked in the morning and later in the day. While the decanted oils were rich in monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes especially [alpha]-farnesene and (Z)-3-hexenyl benzoate, the cohobated oils were rich in linalool, benzyl acetate and other water soluble components (13).
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Vibhuti Misra, Director, Regional Research Laboratory, Bhubaneswar, for providing facilities and permission to publish this paper.
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Y. Ramachandra Rao* and Prasant K. Rout
Regional Research Laboratory, Bhubaneswar 751 013, India
* Address for correspondence
1041-2905/03/0006-0398$6.00/0-© 2003 Allured Publishing Corp.
Received: July 2001
Revised: September 2001
Accepted: October 2001
Copyright Allured Publishing Corporation Nov/Dec 2003
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