Volatile constituents of four Hexachlamys species growing in South Brazil

The essential oils of the fresh leaves of Hexachlamys edulis, H. hamiltonii, H. humilis and H. itatiaiensis were obtained by hydrodistillation and analyzed by GC-FID and GC-MS. Sixty-seven compounds were identified. H. itatiaiensis oil was characterized by large amounts of the monoterpene hydrocarbon a-pinene (22.0%). The oil from H. hamiltonii was shown to be quite distinct from the other species, in which (E)-nerolidol (34.3%), an acyclic sesquiterpene, was the major compound. In the monoterpene fraction limonene (11.3%) was the most representative. In the oil from H. edulis and H. humilis there was a predominance of sesquiterpenes, of which beta-selinene (16.1%), beta-caryophyllene (8.3%) and delta-cadinene (8.3%) were the most abundant compounds for H. edulis oil, while H. humilis oil was composed mainly of bicyclogermacrene (8.6%), spathulenol (8.1%) and alpha-cadinol (9.1%). Copyright (c) 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.