Assessment of the essential oil composition of Tornabenea annua, Tornabenea insularis and Tornabenea tenuissima fruits from Cape Verde Islands

The essential oils of Tornabenea annua, Tornabenea insularis and Tornabenea tenuissima herbarium or in vivo fruits, collected in Fogo, Santiago, Santo Antao, Sao Nicolau and Sao Vicente Islands, from Cape Verde archipelago, or from plants grown in Lisbon, Portugal, were isolated by hydrodistillation and analysed by CC and CC-MS. The yellowish oils were obtained in variable average yields, lower in herbarium samples [0.05% (v/w)] and higher from in vivo samples [1.3% (v/w)]. Whereas T annua fruits' oils were all dominated by myristicin (92-100%), most of the T insularis fruit samples' oils were elemicin rich (82-90%). No clear information could be obtained for T tenuissima fruits' oils as each of the samples gave different chemical composition. Cluster analysis of the essential oil composition from the fruits' samples studied, confirmed these chemical differences. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.. - European Social Fund [211 015]. - We are grateful to the curator of IICT Herbarium (LISC), for the access facilities to the herbarium specimens, to the technicians from Parque Nacional de Serra Malagueta, Santiago Island, and from Tapada da Ajuda, ISA, UTL. This study was partially funded by a grant from European Social Fund 211 015 (PRODEP III - 3.2)