Volatile Secondary Metabolites in Cascarillo (Ocotea caparrapi (Sandino-Groot ex Nates) Dugand - Lauraceae)

Abstract

In this work, the chemical analysis of the volatile fractions obtained by simultaneous distillation-extraction of aerial parts of a species of Ocotea aff. O. caparrapi known as “Cascarillo” was carried out by GC-MS. The main components identified were: α-pinene (23.9 %) and β-pinene (14.7 %), in the resin; α- terpineol (26.6 %) and methyleugenol (14.7 %), in the leaves; elemicin (31.3 %) and methyleugenol (31.1 %), in the branch bark; myristicin (35.4-46.1 %), terpinen-4-ol (14.9-26.3 %), and α-terpineol (17.5-21.3 %), in stem bark. A high content of monoterpene hydrocarbons (82.6 % and 51.8 %) were found in the resin and leaves; and propenylbenzenes (66.5 %), in the branch bark. Oxygenated monoterpenes (44.5-57.3 %) and propenylbenzenes (52.3-38.7 %) constituted the stem bark. The identification of methyleugenol, elemicin and myristicin, in the volatile fractions, allowed us to establish a relationship between the Ocotea sp. of our study with O. caparrapi and O. cymbarum.