Chemical Composition of the Wood and Leaf Oils from the “Clanwilliam Cedar” (Widdringtonia Cedarbergensis J.A. Marsh): a Critically Endangered Species

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South African Journal of Botany 76 (2010) 652 – 654 www.elsevier.com/locate/sajb

Chemical composition of the wood and leaf oils from the “Clanwilliam Cedar” (Widdringtonia cedarbergensis J.A. Marsh): A critically endangered species
G.P.P. Kamatou a , A.M. Viljoen a,⁎, T. Özek b , K.H.C. Başer b a Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Science, Tshwane University of Technology, Private Bag X680, Pretoria 0001, South Africa b Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Anadolu University, 26470-Eskişehir, Turkey Received 15 February 2010; received in revised form 31 March 2010; accepted 1 April 2010

Abstract Widdringtonia is the only genus of the 16 genera of Cupressaceae present in South Africa. This genus is represented by three species in South Africa; W. nodiflora, W. schwarzii and W. cedarbergensis (= W. juniperoides) and the latter listed as critically endangered. Cedarwood oil (generally obtained from Juniperus species) is widely used as a fragrance material in several consumer products, however, no data has been published on the volatiles of the Clanwilliam cedar (W. cedarbergensis) native to South Africa. The essential oil composition of the wood and leaf oil isolated by hydro-distillation were analysed by GC–MS. The two oils were distinctly different. Twenty compounds representing 93.8% of the total oil were identified in the leaf oil which was dominated by terpinen-4-ol (36.0%), sabinene (19.2%), γ-terpinene (10.4%), α-terpinene (5.5%) and myrcene (5.5%). Twenty six compounds representing 89.5% of the total were identified in the wood oil with the predominance of thujopsene (47.1%), α-cedrol (10.7%), widdrol (8.5%) and cuparene (4.0%). © 2010 SAAB. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Essential oil; Sabinene; Terpinen-4-ol; Thujopsene; Widdringtonia cedarbergensis; Widdrol; α-Cedrol; γ-Terpinene

1. Introduction The genus Widdringtonia belongs to the

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