Chemotypic variation for essential oils inValeriana jatamansiJones populations from Himachal Pradesh

Valeriana jatamansi Jones has been used frequently in traditional medicine as mild sedative, antispasmodic and tranquilizer. Thirteen plant populations collected from different agro-climatic regions of Himachal Pradesh and grown in farm were used in the present study. Roots and rhizomes yielded between 0.60 and 1.66% (v/w) essential oil on dry weight basis. Gas chromatography–mass spectometry (GC–MS) analysis of essential oil led to identify twenty three different volatile components in the essential oil, among which Patchoulol, Calarene, Pogostol, Veridiflorol, Azulene and Seychellene were the major fractions. Based on the PCA analysis, thirteen populations have been differentiated in three distinct Groups. Group-I characterized by high contents of Patchouli alcohol (48.47–65.04 %), Seychellene (2.97–5.29%) and Pogostol (2.1–2.39%), whereas, Group-II had moderate contents of Patchoulol (30.16-38.52%), Veridiflorol (24.41–25.23%). Group-III had high contents of Veridiflorol (29.88–50.29%) alongwith Calarene (10.41–24.21).