Chemical composition of Rhododendron aureum (gold rosebay) essential oil from Pribaikal’e (Russian

Abstract

Abstract: The essential oils from five samples of leaves of Rhododendron aureum from the Irkutsk region, Pribaikal’e, Russian Federation, were isolated by hydrodistillation and analyzed by a combination of GC and GC/MS. Compounds representing 70.5–78.3 % of the oils were identified. Twenty-seven compounds were identified according to their chromatographic retention indices and mass spectra. The major components of the oils were calarene (10.4– –66.4 %), β-bourbonene (0.5–27.4 %), α-selinene (2.1–8.0 %) and kaur-16-ene (2.0–6.3 %). It was found that the chemical composition of Rh. aureum essential oil depends on the altitude of the growing plants