Volatile Constituents of Three Illicium Plants

The chemical composition of volatiles from the leaves of three different Illicium species has been studied. The essential oils were obtained by hydrodistillation and analyzed by GC (FID) and GC-MS. The components by identified by MS libraries and their LRIs. The essential oil contents vary between 0.12% and 0.21% (v/w), calculated on a dry weight basis. Illicium majus J. D. Hooker & Thomson afforded oil whose major constituents were aromadendrene (13.0%), cuparene (8.2%), 1,8-cineole (8.1%) and calamenene (7.8%). However, 1,8-cineole (8.4%), linalool (7.7%), (E)-nerolidol (7.6%) and sabinene (7.1%) were the quantitatively significant compounds of the leaf oil of Illicium micranthun Dunn. The leaf oil of Illicium tsaii A. C. Smith comprised mainly of (E)-nerolidol (15.5%), β-caryophyllene (8.1%), β-cedrene (6.5%), 1,8-cineole (6.3%) and calamenene (6.3%). The chemical composition of the leaf essential oils of these plants from are being reported for the first time.