A comparative study of the volatiles emitted by flowers of three Hedychium species from La Reunion

With the objective to develop a scent database that could be used for perfume and cosmetics applications, a comparative analysis of the floral profiles close to one hundred odorous flowering plants found in Reunion Island has been undertaken for the last few years in our laboratory. A part of this work relating to three Hedychium species (the well-known H. coronarium but also H. flavescens and H. gardnerianum) is presented here. To achieve this, the solid-phase microextraction (SPME) on living flowers coupled to GC/MS was used. A total of 53 volatiles were identified belonging to aliphatic ketones, monoterpenes (hydrocarbons and oxygenated), sesquiterpenes (hydrocarbons and oxygenated), phenylpropanoids/benzenoids and miscellaneous. The phenylpropanoid/benzenoid and terpenoid classes were the main volatile classes. (E)-beta-ocimene, linalool, (E,E)-alpha-farnesene, (E)-nerolidol, methyl benzoate, methyl salicylate, (E)-isoeugenol and indole were the major compounds detected. Results also revealed significant aroma variation among the different flowers.