Chemical Variation in Volatiles of Craniotome furcata: Correlation with Soil Properties

 The essential oils from the aerial parts of ten wild growing Craniotome furcata (Link.) O. Kuntze of the family Lamiaceae collected from different locations in Uttarakhand, India, was analyzed by capillary GC and GC/MS. The oils were rich in sesquiterpenoids. The cluster analysis showed the presence of four groups. Group-I was significantly rich in δ-elemene and germacrene D while group-II had germacrene D in abundant quantity. α-Bisabolol oxide A, α-cadinol and germacrene D-4-ol were major constituents of group-III. Group-IV showed the presence of α-muurolol and germacrene D as major constituents. Germacrene D was found to be present in all the samples of C. furcata collected from different locations and was positively correlated with the altitude of the collection regions. Chemical variation in the volatiles was statistically correlated with altitude and soil properties.