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Composition of the Floral Essential Oil of Brugmansia suaveolens

Samuel J. Anthony, Willow Zuchowski and William N. Setzer

Department of Chemistry, University of Alabama in Huntsville , Huntsville, AL 35899, USA

Apdo. 50-5655, Monteverde, Costa Rica

Abstract: The floral essential oils of Brugmansia suaveolens, from Monteverde , Costa Rica , were collected at three different times of the day by hydrodistillation and the oils analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The floral essential oil showed a dramatic change in composition between the freshly opened night (white) blossoms and the rose-colored senescent blossoms the following day. The white blossoms were dominated by 1,8-cineole (72.1%), (E)-nerolidol (11.7%), a -terpineol (5.3%), and phenethyl alcohol (3.2%), notably different from headspace analyses of B. suaveolens reported previously. The floral essential oil from “rose-colored” senescent blossoms of B. suaveolens showed dramatic decreases in 1,8-cineole (2.0%), (E)-nerolidol (1.9%), and phenethyl alcohol (not detected), with concomitant increases in heptanal (10.2%), nonanal (17.4%), terpinen-4-ol (10.5%), and megastigmatrienones (35.5%).

Keywords: Brugmansia suaveolens ; essential oil composition; temporal variation; 1,8-cineole; nerolidol ; heptanal; nonanal; megastigmatrienone