The chemical composition of Indian Tagetes minuta L. oil was determined at different developmental stages of plant growth using GC, 1H- and 13C-NMR spectroscopy. In contrast to previous results, the characteristic components of the Indian oil were found to be (Z)-β-ocimene, (Z)-tagetenone, (E)-tagetenone, (Z)- and (E)-tagetones and dihydrotagetone. The percentage composition of these constituents changes with flower maturation. The dihydrotagetone percentage declined sharply from flower buds (48.09%) to seed shedding stage (11.90%) with a simultaneous rise in (Z)-β-ocimene (35.3%), (Z)-tagetenone and (E)-tagetenone (both 26.44%) at the time of immature fruit formation, suggesting that dihydrotagetone may biogenetically be changing into (Z)- and (E)-tagetenones.
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Thappa et al. (1993) studied this question.