Affiliation:
1. Aromatic Plant Research Center, Lehi, UT, USA
2. Department of Chemistry, University of Alabama, Huntsville, AL, USA
Abstract
Frankincense is an aromatic oleogum resin that has been traded for thousands of years for medicine and incense and is today frequently distilled into essential oils for aromatherapy and perfume. A new species of frankincense, Boswellia occulta Thulin, DeCarlo, & S.P. Johnson, was recently described from Somaliland (northern Somalia), but pure essential oils from this species have not yet been described. Samples of resin were collected directly from 12 individual B. occulta trees, hydrodistilled, and analyzed via GC-MS, GC-FID, and agglomerative hierarchical clustering. This revealed a significant level of methyl ethers in all samples (34.5%-62.6%), especially 1-methoxydecane (26.6%-47.9%) and 1-methoxyoctane (3.6%-8.6%). All samples were similar, but 3 groups were defined: (1) a methoxydecane/serratol/methoxyoctane group with 26.6% to 47.4% 1-methoxydecane, 14.5% to 31.8% serratol, and 3.6% to 8.6% 1-methoxyoctane; (2) a methoxydecane/di- epi-guaiol/serratol group with 26.6% to 29.1% 1-methoxydecane, 11.1% to 15.1% 4,10-di- epi-guaiol, and 10.3% to 16.8% serratol; and (3) a methoxydecane/methoxyoctane/di- epi-guaiol group with 38.9% to 47.9% 1-methoxydecane, 7.0% to 9.2% 1-methoxyoctane, and 2.2% to 12.3% 4,10-di- epi-guaiol.
Subject
Complementary and alternative medicine,Plant Science,Drug Discovery,Pharmacology,General Medicine