Chemical composition of the essential oil of Juniperus phoenicea L. from Algeria

The chemical composition of the essential oil of juniperus phoenicea from Algeria was investigated for the first time. The volatile oil was isolated by hydrodistillation in yield 0.80% and was analyzed by GC/FID and GUMS techniques. One hundred and three constituents, representing 96.0% of the oil was identified, twenty-three being reported for the first time in J. phoenicea oil. The oil was characterized by the presence of high amounts of monoterpene hydrocarbons (62.2%) and by a lower percentage of oxygenated sesquiterpenes (8.8%), of which alpha-pinene (40.2%), alpha-phellandrene (14.7%) and elemol (3.9%) were the main compounds. Also the oil was characterized by tire presence of three diterpenes constituents; manoyl oxide, abietadiene and cis-totarol amounting to 0.3%. A comparison with tire composition of the oils of J. phoenicea (subspecies and varieties) of other countries reported in literature is discussed briefly.