Essential oil composition of leaves, tertiary, and secondary branches of Ocotea aciphylla (Nees & Mart.) Mez (Lauraceae) from Ecuador

Ocotea aciphylla (Nees & Mart.) Mez (Lauraceae) is one of the least studied species of its genus. Essential oil obtained through steam distillation of O. aciphylla was examined to establish the chemical profile of samples (n = 9) from leaves, tertiary, and secondary branches. The resulting essential oils were analyzed by GC/FID and GC/MS. The chemical profile of the essential oil revealed decreasing trends in -thujene (avg. 6.8 to 2.8 %), pinene (avg. 21.2 to 7.1 %), -pinene (avg. 4.2 to 1.6 %), myrcene (avg. 2.5 to 0.5 %), -3carene (avg. 3.3 to 1.2%), o-cymene (avg. 14.9 to 7.4 %), limonene (avg. 6.1 to 2.9%), 1,8cineole (avg. 5.9 to 1.2%), -terpinene (avg 9.3 to 3.9 %), and -terpineol (avg. 1.8 to 1.0%). In the same plant parts, increasing trends were observed for the compounds terpinen-4-ol (avg. 1.6 to 3.1 %), (E)-cinnamaldehyde (avg. 0.1 to 19 %), -cubebene (avg. 0.1 to 3.7 %), (E)-methyl cinnamate (avg. not detected to 16.5 %) and -cadinene (avg. 0.1 to 1.9 %). This study elucidates compound differences in the essential oil from O. aciphylla based on the part of the plant used for the distillation and provides fundamental data for substantiating ethnobotanical applications.