Composition of the essential oil from leaves of Smallanthus quichensis (Asteraceae) from Costa Rica

Smallanthus is a genus of flowering plants in the Asteraceae family, which has about 24 species, ranging mostly from southern Mexico and Central America to the Andes in South America. The aim of the present study was to identify the chemical composition of leaf essential oil of S. quichensis, growing wild in Costa Rica. The extraction of the oils was carried out by the hydrodistillation method, using a modified Clevenger type apparatus. The chemical composition of the oils was analyzed by capillary GC-FID and GC-MS using the retention indices on DB-5 type capillary column. A total of 100 compounds were identified, accounting for about 90% of the total amount of the oils. Smallanthus quichensis leaf produced a monoterpenoid-rich oil, whose composition was dominated by α-pinene (64.5%) and 1,8-cineole (9.7%) or, in a different sample, by α-pinene (35.5%) with moderate amounts of p-cymene (11.5%), β-phellandrene (9.2%), α-phellandrene (9.0%) and limonene (5.8%). This is the first report of the chemical composition of the essential oil obtained from this plant species