Determination of the Volatile Composition in Essential Oil of <i>Azadirachta indica</i> A. Juss from different areas of North Indian Plains by Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS)
Nisha Sharma, Bikram Singh, Mohammad Saleem Wani, Raghbir Chand Gupta, Talaat Habeeb
Abstract
The present work identifies the essential oil components of Azadirachta indica leaves from three different locations viz. Haryana, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh. The yields of essential oils obtained by hydro- distillation were 0.018 %, 0.038 %, and 0.047 % from Haryana, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh, respectively. The detailed chemical composition of essential oils was analyzed by GC-MS, and thirty-six, thirty-two, and thirty- four compounds were identified. The results indicated that the most abundant components of sample AzP were germacrene-B (40.31 %), β-caryophyllene (10.89 %), mintsulfide (9.41 %), γ-elemene (7.24 %), α-humulene (2.87 %), bicyclogermacrene (2.70 %), phytol (2.64 %), and α-cadinol (2.00 %). Compared with the constituents of sample AzP, several chemical compounds such as γ-Elemene, bicyclogermacrene, and phytol were not detected in sample AzB and sample AzS and were unique to sample AzP only. Sample-AzB was dominated by tetracosane (52.44 %), β-caryophyllene (5.16 %), palmitic acid (3.70 %), mintsulfide (2.92 %), docosane (2.79 %), spathulenol (2.28 %), hexadeca-7, 10, 13-trienal (2.12 %), and α-cadinol (2.08 %). Sample AzS was found to be rich in n- docosane (21.26 %), phytol (21.09 %), 1-docosene (20.28 %), octadecanol acetate (10.04 %), palmitic acid (2.88 %), and germacrene B (1.94 %). The present study identifies the best site where the cultivation of A. indica can preferably be done commercially, for the use of plant in preparation of medicines and other formulations.