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Seasonal Variation in Essential oil Composition of Artemisianilagirica var. septentrionalis from Foot Hills of Western Himalaya

Rajendra Chandra Padalia, Ram Swaroop Verma, Amit Chauhan and Chandan Singh Chanotiya

CSIR-Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP), Research Center, Pantnagar- 263 149, Uttarakhand, India

Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP, CSIR), Lucknow-226 015, Uttar Pradesh, India

Abstract: Essential oils composition of the aerial parts of Artemisia nilagirica (Clarke) Pamp. var. septentrionalis Pamp. in different seasons viz. spring, summer, rainy, autumn and winter seasons under foot hills agroclimatic conditions of western Himalaya were analyzed and compared by GC–FID and GC–MS. Essential oils were mainly composed of monoterpenoids (59.0%-77.3%) and sesquiterpenoids (15.7%-31.6%). The major constituents identified were artemisia ketone (38.3%-61.2%), chrysanthenone (1.5%-7.7%), germacrene D (3.1%-6.8%), β-caryophyllene (1.9%-6.8%), germacra-4,5,10-trien-1-α-ol (1.9%-4.9%) and artemisia alcohol (1.4%-3.6%). Compositional analysis showed significant variations in the terpenoid compositions due to seasonal variations. Further, this is for the first time the seasonal variations in essential oil compositions of artemisia ketone rich chemotype of A. nilagirica var. septentrionalis is being reported from India.

Keywords: Artemisia nilagirica; essential oils; artemisia ketone ; β-caryophyllene , germacrene D. © 2014 ACG Publications. All rights reserved.