Composition of Essential Oil from Piper jacquemontianum from Eight Provenances of Guatemala

Abstract

Piper jacquemontianum Kunth (Piperaceae) is a native species from Central America and the Caribbean lowlands. It is traditionally used as a medicine and condiment in several ethnic groups from the region. Essential oils of dry leaves were obtained from eight ecologically different sites of Guatemala, which were cultivated under similar conditions in the Pacific basin. The essential oil yields obtained by hydrodistillation varied with the site of collection (0.3-1.7%). The essential oil composition was determined by gas chromatography; E-nerolidol was the only compound common to all provenances, although in a wide range (5.7-73.8%), being the main component of four of them. In the oils from other provenances, the main components were linalool, terpinen-4-ol, spathulenol, and α-bisabolol. This is the first report on the variation of the essential oil composition of this species of different provenance cultivated under similar conditions, suggesting high variability in its composition, and demonstrating at least five groups of P. jacquemontianum according to the composition of its essential oil. In further agrotechnological research, selection of the most promising samples could generate unique cultivars which might produce the expected compound.