Acta Pharm. 52 (2002) 207-211

Short communication  
 

Chemical constituents of the fruit essential oil of Diospyros malabarica (Desr.)
Kostel (Ebenaceae)

MADEPALLI BYRAPPAGOWDU VISWANATHAN,1*MUTHIAH MARIDASS,1 DEVARAJAN THANGADURAI2 and NARAYANAPERUMAL RAMESH1 

vinaa@rediffmail.com

1Sri Paramakalyani Centre for Environmental Sciences, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Alwarkurichi 627 412,
Tamil Nadu, India
2Plant Molecular Systematics Laboratory, Department of Botany, Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Anantapur 515 003,
Andhra Pradesh, India
Received December 13, 2001      Accepted June 27, 2002

The essential oil of Diospyros malabarica fruits studied by GC-MS revealed their composition of sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (38.7%), phenyl propanoids (36.7%), monoterpene hydrocarbons (18.5%), and much smaller amounts of oxygenated monoterpenes (2.2%) and oxygenated sesquiterpenes (1.0%). The phenyl propanoid, trans-alpha-methyl isoeugenol (31.5%) and sesquiterpene hydrocarbon, beta-bisabolene (25.9%) are present as major constituents. A noticeable amount of gamma-terpinene (9.2%), myrcene (5.8%), alpha-cubebene (5.4%), beta-asarone (5.2%) and methyl eugenol (1.3%) occurs in the fruit essential oil.


Keywords: Diospyros malabarica (Ebenaceae), fruit, essential oil, trans-alpha-methyl isoeugenol, beta-bisabolene, gamma-terpinene, myrcene, alpha-cubebene, beta-asarone