Essential oil composition of Bothriochloa pertusa and phyletic relationship in aromatic grasses

Chemical composition of the essential oil of Bothriochloa pertusa (L) A. Camus, collected from temperate Himalaya, revealed the major categories of terpenoids as monoterpene hydrocarbons (26.45%), oxygenated monoterpenes (7.29%), sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (4.73%) and oxygenated sesquiterpenes (37.05%), in 82.31% of the total volatile constituents identified. Twenty-eight compounds were identified, the major of which are camphene (7.40%), limonene (14.90%), borneol (2.26%), Isobornyl acetate (2.01%), beta-caryophyllene (3.10%), intermedeol (24.72%) and acorenone-B (9.80%). B. pertusa contains higher percentage of monoterpene hydrocarbons and oxygenated monoterpenes in comparison to B. bladhi, the only other species of the genus analysed in detail. About 88% of the aromatic grasses are represented by tribe Andropogoneae, that spread globally by late Miocene, possibly a period of the greatest evolutionary diversity in aromatic grasses. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.