Variability in essential oil composition of different plant parts of Heracleum candicans Wall. Ex DC from North India

The essential oil composition of different plant parts (leaf, stem, roots and fresh umbels at full bloom, green seed stage and brown seed stage) of H. candicans from North India were studied and compared using GC-FID and GC-MS. Altogether, 49 constituents comprising 85.4-96.2% were identified. -Pinene (5.4-17.7%), myrcene (0.5-9.7%), -humulene (5.6-9.5%), lavandulyl acetate (3.2-8.0%), -copaene (2.4-6.2%), -pinene (2.1-5.2%) and ar-curcumene (1.8-5.1%) were the major constituents of leaf and stem essential oils of H. candicans. The root essential oil of H. candicans was found to be dominated by -pinene (40.4%) and -pinene (15.4%). However, umbel essential oils of different maturity stages of H. candicans were found to be dominated by esters viz. lavandulyl acetate (26.3-40.4%), bornyl acetate (0.05-16.4%) and n-octyl acetate (0.05-10.2%). The essential oil compositions were compared with earlier reports on Heracleum spp. which revealed significant variation in composition. This is for the first time the essential oil composition of different plant parts of H. candicans have been reported from Indian origin.