A Comparative Study of the Composition of the Leaf Oils of ThreeLitseaspecies from Borneo

Abstract The chemical components of the leaf oils of Litsea resinosa Bl., L. gracilipes Hook. f. and L. paludosa Koesterm. were identified by co-chromatography with authentic samples on two capillary columns of different polarity, GC/MS and linear retention indices. The leaf oils were made up mainly of sesquiterpenoids. The oil of L. resinosa could be differentiated from the other samples due to its high contents of bulnesol (14.9%), β-caryophyllene (10.2%), β-elemene (10.2%) and other sesquiterpenoids. Ledene (9.0%) and aromadendrene (8.3%) were the major constituents in the leaf oil of L. gracilipes. Of the Litsea oils studied, this oil contained the highest concentrations of monoterpenoids with p-menth-1-en-9-ol (1.4%) as the major representative. The leaf oil of L. paludosa was found to possess some compositional similarities to the leaf oil of L. gracilipes but it could be distinguished from the latter by the significant presence of elemol (7.7%), γ-cadinene (2.9%), γ-eudesmol (2.8%), selin-11-en-4α-ol (2.3%), α-cadinene (2.1%), palustrol (1.7%) and selina-3,7(11)-diene (1.1%).