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ABSTRACT: The cloves are grown as plantation crops in the agroclimatic conditions of the Indian island of
Little Andaman. The dried leaves, on hydrodistillation, gave 4.8% of the oil. GC and GC–MS analysis of the
oil resulted in the identification of 16 compounds. The major compound was eugenol (94.4%) followed by ˇ-
caryophyllene (2.9%). The clove oil from Little Andaman was found to be comparable with the best oil produced
in south India in terms of its eugenol content. It is suggested that clove can be grown as an economically viable
crop in the Andaman, Nicobar and Lakshdeep islands. Copyright 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
KEY WORDS: Syzygium aromaticum; Myrtaceae; leaf oil; essential oil composition; eugenol; caryophyllene
dimethyl siloxane (BP-1). The oven temperature was apparatus, which gave an oil in 4.8% yield (v/w). GC and
programmed from 60 ° C to 220 ° C at 5 ° C/ min, then GC–MS analyses resulted in the identification of a total
held isothermal at 220 ° C for 15 min; injector temper- of 16 constituents in clove leaf oil from Little Andaman.
ature, 250 ° C; detector temperature, 300 ° C; carrier gas- The relative concentrations of the volatile components
nitrogen at a inlet pressure of 10 psi; split, 1 : 80. identified are presented in Table 1, according to their
increasing elution order on a BP-1 column. Clove leaf oil
from Little Andaman was quite different from Indone-
Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry
sian clove leaf oil14 in respect of its eugenol (94.4,
(GC–MS)
71.0%), caryophyllene (2.9, 14.0%) and ˛-humulene
(0.36, 1.75%) contents, respectively. On the other hand,
GC–MS data were obtained on a Shimadzu QP-2000
it matched to a great extent with the leaf oil reported by
Mass Spectrometer instrument at 70 eV and 250 ° C.
GC column: Ulbon HR-1 (equivalent to OV-1), fused Gopalakrishanan and Narayayanan from south India15
silica capillary column (0.25 mm ð 50 m, film thickness in its eugenol content (94.4, 95.2%). It is interesting to
0.25 µm). The initial temperature was 100 ° C for 7 mm, note that ˇ-caryophyllene (2.9%), nerol (0.79%) and ˇ-
and then heated at 5° C/ min to 250 ° C. Carrier gas, caryophyllene oxide (0.67%) were present in substantial
helium a flow rate of 2 ml/min. quantity in the oil from Little Andaman, while these con-
stituents were either absent or present only in traces in
the leaf oil from south India. Similarly, eugenyl acetate
Identification of Compounds (1.5%) and ˛-farnesol (0.5%) were present only in the
oil from south India. This variation in the percentage
Compounds were identified by comparing the retention composition of the above constituents may be due to the
indices of the peaks on the BP-1 column with litera- variation in the agroclimatic and geographical conditions
ture values, computer matching against the library spec- or varietal differences of the places of origin of the oils.
tra built up using pure substances and components of From the above facts, it is evident that the quality of the
known essential oils, and finally confirmed by compar- essential oil obtained from the clove leaves from Little
ison of mass spectra with published data. The relative Andaman is competitive with the best oil produced in
amounts of individual components are based on peak south India. Hence, the mature leaves of S. aromaticum
areas obtained without FID response factor correction. can be considered as an economical source for the com-
The Kováts retention indices were calculated from gas mercial isolation of natural eugenol. It is suggested that
chromatograms by the logarithmic equation using the the region of the Andaman, Nicobar and Lakshdeep
homologous series of n-alkanes (C-8 to C-22: Poly Sci- islands having similar soils and agroclimates can be well
ence Inc., Niles, USA) as standards.10 – 13 exploited for more and more areas of clove cultivation
for the production of clove leaf oil, which will find a
very good market in the flavour and fragrance industry
Results and Discussion due to its higher eugenol content.
The volatile oil was obtained by conventional hydrodis- Acknowledgements—The authors are highly grateful to Sh. A. P.
Kahol, Deputy Director and Head Chemical Engineering Division,
tillation of S. aromaticum leaves in a Clevenger-type CIMAP, Lucknow, for his keen interest in this work.
Copyright 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Flavour Fragr. J. 2001; 16: 334–336
336 V. K. RAINA ET AL.
13. Ramaswamy SK, Briseese P, Gargiullo RJ, van Geldern T. In Fungi , Charalambous G (ed.). Elsevier Science: Amsterdam
Flavours and Fragrances: A World Perspective, Lawrence BM, 1994: 483–500.
Mookherjee BD, Willis BJ (eds). Elsevier: Amsterdam, 1988. 15. Gopalakrishnan M, Narayanan CS. Ind. Perfum. 1988; 32:
14. Vernin G, Vernin E, Metzger J, Pujol L, Parkanyi C. GC,MS 130.
Analysis of clove essential oils. In Spices Herbs and Edible
Copyright 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Flavour Fragr. J. 2001; 16: 334–336