Essential Oils from Fresh Fruits, Fruit Stalks and Stem Barks of Four Piper nigrum Varieties from Sarawak

Abstract

The variation of chemical compositions in essential oils obtained from fresh fruits, fruit stalks and stem barks offour Piper nigrum L. varieties was analysed using capillary gas chromatography-flame ionization detector (GCFID)and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The essential oils were extracted byhydrodistillation Clevenger-type apparatus. The major oil constituents identified in all samples were β-elemene(1.07-2.93%), (+)-δ-cadinene (0.58-6.20%), α-caryophyllene (1.90-6.21%), δ-elemene (0.38-13.26%), 3-carene(0.07-16.82%) and β-caryophyllene (11.78-38.33%). All oil samples showed high content of sesquiterpenes,whereas fruit oils from Semongok Emas and Semongok Wan yielded mostly monoterpenes. Hierarchicalclustering and principal component analysis (PCA) of the oil components revealed significant correlationamongst individual P. nigrum oil samples.