INFLUENCE OF AGE OF THE LEAVES OF E. uniflora L. ON CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF ESSENTIAL OIL

GC-FID, GC-MS and NMR spectral data were used to analyze the composition of the essential oils extracted from young and mature leaves of E. uniflora L. grown in Seropedica - RJ. Thirty and twenty-five compounds were identified, corresponding to approximately 98.19% and 93.77% of the total amount of oils, respectively. The major components of the young leaves were (3Z, 7E)-3,7-dimethyl-10-(propan-2-ylidene)cyclodeca-3,7-dienone (germacrone, 34.59%), 4,5,6,7-tetrahydro-3,6-dimethyl-5-(prop-1-en-2-yl)-6-vinylbenzofuran (curzerene, 26.56%) and (1Z, 5E)-1,5-dimethyl-8-(propan-2-ylidene) cyclodeca-1,5-diene (germacrene B, 12.72%), and of the mature leaves were curzerene (35.75%), germacrene B (19.22%) and beta-(E, 1R, 9S)-4,11,11-trimethyl-8-methylenebicyclo[7.2.0] undec-4-ene (caryophyllene, 12.55%). The multivariate analysis applied to data from GC-MS allowed discrimination of the differences in the chemical composition of oils based on the age of the leaves. The components germacrone, curzerene e furanodiene (not observed during conventional chromatographic analysis) were isolated from the essential oil of young leaves. These compounds were characterized by GC-MS, and H-1 and C-13 NMR (1D and 2D).