Bound volatile compounds and essential oil from the fruit of Maclura pomifera (Raf.) Schneid. (osage orange)

Abstract The bound and free volatile compounds from Maclura pomifera (Raf.) Schneid. (osage orange fruit) have been studied by GC and GC–MS. The free volatiles amounted to 230 mg/kg and the content of bound volatiles was 10 mg/kg. Identified compounds consist of aliphatic constituents (free, 28.3%; bound, 27.6%), phenylpropane derivatives along with related compounds (free, 5.1%; bound, 36.0%), monoterpenes along with sesquiterpenes (free, 54.9%; bound, 15.5%) and other compounds (bound, 1.6%). In total, 39 bound volatiles were identified, with eugenol (9.9%) and p ‐cresol (9.6%) being the major components. As far as we know, this is the first report on bound volatiles of osage orange fruit and 12 compounds were established to be identical by comparison with the free volatiles. The principal constituents of the essential oil were elemol (19.2%), 1‐dodecanol (9.7%), trans ‐caryophyllene (5.6%) and n ‐hexyl hexanoate (5.4%). Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.