Ethnobotanical Leaflets 13: 467-71, 2009. Phytochemical
Analysis of the Essential Oil from Aerial parts of Pulicaria
undulata (L.) Kostel
from Hatil Hashim EL-Kamali1,
Mohammed Omer Yousif2, Osama Ibrahim Ahmed2 and Sabir Suliman Sabir2 1Botany Department, Faculty of Science and Technology, 2Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science and Technology, Issued Abstract The yield of steam distillation of aerial parts of Pulicaria undulata
essential oil (2.5%); and its chemical constituents were determined. The Gas
Chromatography-Mass Spectrometery (GC/MS) technique
was used for the analysis of the oil. Several oil components were identified
based upon comparison of their mass spectral data with those of reference
compounds published in literature or stored in a computer library. The oil
was characterized by the high content of the oxygenated monoterpenes
which constituted 68.28 % in which (+)-carvotanacetone
(55.87 %) was the major constituent. Pulicaria
undulata oil was characterized by the presence
of many components which could have numerous applications in food,
pharmaceutical and perfume industries. Key
words: Essential oil composition, Pulicaria
undulate, (+)-carvotanacetone, Beta-linalool, thymol. Introduction The chemical constituents of essential oils are terpenoids, phenyl propanoids
and their oxidation products which are all known to qualitatively and quantitatively
vary in plants depending on environmental and genetic factors as well as
extraction methodologies used. The most widely used analytical method for
essential oils analysis is gas chromatography which is far more sensitive
than other chromatographic methods, such as TLC. Pulicaria
undulata is densely white –
woolly branched erect herb. Leaves crowded, dentate, oblong
to linear at the apex, auriculate - amplexicaul at the base. Flower heads yellow solitary
terminal or sub-terminal on peduncules (Andrews,
1956). The
composition of the steam distilled oil of the fresh aerial parts of P.
undulata (L.) Kostel (from Materials
and Methods Plant material The aerial parts of Pulicaria
undulata were collected in Novomber
2008, from EL-Fiteehab region, University City
Campus of Omdurman Islamic University in Omdurman South. It was taxonomically identified at the
Department of Botany, Faculty of Science and Technology, Omdurman
Islamic University. Preparation of the essential oil: The finely dry powdered aerial parts (385 grams) were
subjected to steam distillation using steam distillation apparatus. The
obtained oil (2ml) was collected, and dried over anhydrous sodium sulphate and kept at 4 ºC until analysis. GC/MS analysis GC/MS analysis was conducted using a Shimatzu
QP 2010 GC/MS instrument equipped with reference libraries. The flow rate of
helium as carrying gas was (1 ml/min). The temperature program consisted of
60 – 270 ºC, with rate of 4 ºC /min. MS
were taken at 70 eV. Library search was carried out
using Wiley GC/MS library. The individual identifications were made by the
comparison of fragmentation patterns with those found in the library of the
Mass spectrometer. Results
and Discussion The yield of volatile oil of Pulicaria
undulata obtained by steam distillation of the
finely powdered aerial parts was 2.5 %. The oil was light yellow and with a
perfumery odor. The GC/MS chromatogram of the oil revealed the presence of
70.97 % monoterpenes and 10.0 % sesquiterpenes
(Table 1) that were identified through comparison of the fragmentation
patterns in the resulting mass spectra with those published in literature (
Adams, 2001) and using the Wiley mass spectral database of the gas
chromatograph computer . This, to the best of our knowledge, represents the first
comprehensive GC/MS analysis of P. undulata
aerial parts from References Adams, R. P. 2001. Identification of
essential oil components by gas chromatography/ mass
spectrometry. Allured Publishing Corp., Andrews,
F. W. 1956. The Flowering Plants of the Ltd., EL-Egami, A. A. 1989. Studies on volatile oils of Pulicaria herbs. M.Sc.
Thesis, Faculty of Agriculture, EL-Kamali
H. H., Ahmed A. H., Mohammed A. S., Yahia A. A. M.,
EL-Tayeb I. H., Ali, A. A. 1998. Antibacterial
properties of essential oils from Nigella
sativa seeds,
Cymbopogon citratus
leaves and Pulicaria undulata
aerial parts. Fitoterapia
LXIX, No. m1, 77-78. Mossa, J. S., Hifnawy, M. S., AL-Yahya, M. A.,
AL-Meshal, I. A., Mekkawi,
A. G. 1987. Aromatic plants of oils
of Pulicaria arabica
and P. undulata. Pharmaceutical
Biology, 25(2): 113-119. Table 1.
Composition of the essential oil of Pulicaria
undulata.
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