Composition of Diethyl Ether Flower Extracts of Lonicera fragrantissima Lindl. & Paxton (Caprifoliaceae)

Abstract

GC and GC-MS analyses of two diethyl ether extracts of Lonicera fragrantissima flowers (extraction times 1 and 20 days) enabled the identification of 61 components that represented ca. 90% of the extract volatiles. 10-Nonacosanol (18.1-24.1%), nonacosane (14.4-15.0%) and the rather rare long-chained fatty acid hexyl esters (octadecanoate, eicosanoate, docosanoate, tetracosanoate, hexacosanoate, octacosanoate and triacontanoate, in total 19.1-19.5%) were among the main constituents of both extracts. However, a number of differences were observed in the chemical composition of the 1 and 20 day extracts, the relative percentage of the iridoid loganetin being the most striking (19.1 and 2.1%, respectively). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the GC behavior of loganetin. It seems that this and the long-chain fatty acid hexyl esters could have chemotaxonomic significance at the generic level.