Abstract:
The volatiles of fresh leaf and flower of Murraya koenigii, grown in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala were isolated by simultaneous distillation and extraction method and analysed by high resolution GC and GC-MS. Fifty two constituents were identified in the leaf oil, comprising 98.45% of the volatiles. The major components were monoterpene hydrocarbons (19.67%) and sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (72.96%) of which beta-caryophyllene (45.92%) is the major one followed by beta-bisabolene (9.79%), gamma-muurolene (9.075%), eudesmane (5.33%), alpha-pinene (6.04%) and limonene (8.53%). In the flower oil, 50 components were identified, constituting 90.66% of the volatile oil. Here too, the major constituents were monoterpene hydrocarbons (60.67%) and sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (11.99%), and Limonene (37.17%) and camphene (14.87%) are the major constituents. Apart from this the flower oil contains quite number of alcohols and esters compared to that of leaf oil.
