Chemical components of essential oil in the heartwood of Cunninghamia lanceolata (Lamb.) Hook.

This study identifies the chemical compounds in the heartwood of Cunninghamia lanceolata (Lamb.) Hook. Essential oil of the wood was obtained from sawdust by steam distillation. Following further separation, 4 fractions of the heartwood essential oil were obtained by silica-gel column chromatography. Each fraction was then analyzed by GC and GC-MS to identify the components. The crystalline compound (fraction 3) from the essential oil of C. lanceolata wood was identified by instrumental analyses (GC, IR, NMR, and GC-MS). The less than 0. 01% essential-oil content in sapwood may not have enough value to study its chemical components, therefore it is not discussed in this paper. Range yield of essential oils obtained from the heartwood of C. lanceolata was 0.77-1.40% v/w; average essential-oil contents were 1.05% v/w. α-CedroI was the major component accounting for 67.62% of the total essential oils. The other 25 minor compounds include α-pinene, β-pinene, α-limonene, β-phellandrene, ρ-cymene, terpinolene, β-himachalene, α-eedrene, γ-muurolene, widdrene, β-sesquiphellandrene, α-terpineol, longipinene, α-amorphene, α-muurolene, γ-elemene, γ-cadinene, α-curcumene, cuparene, caryophyllene oxide, α-terpinyl acetate, β-bisabolol, cedryl acetate, α-bisabolol, and manool etc. are also presented. Among these, the 10 components, widdrene, longipinene, α-amorphene, γ-elemene, γ-cadinene, caryophyllene oxide, β-bisabolol, cedryl acetate, α-bisabolol, and manool, are reported for the 1st time in the heartwood essential oil of C. lanceolata.