Aromatic Plants of Tropical West Africa. X. Volatile Constituents ofZanthoxylum zanthoxyloidesLam. Leaves and Fruit Pericarps from Benin

The essential oils of leaves and fruit pericarps of Zanthoxylum zanthoxyloides were analyzed by GC and GC/MS. The leaf oil contained only monoterpene hydrocarbons (98.2%); among them, α-pinene (26.5%), myrcene (30.0%) and (E)-β-ocimene (31.9%) were most predominant. The composition of the fruit oil is more diverse, with 85.5% of monoterpenoids and a fairly large proportion of oxygenated compounds (30.9%), among which linalool (11.3%) and geranial (9.5%) were the most abundant. Both the leaf and fruit oils contained fairly large amounts of (E)-β-ocimene 31.9% and 41.5%, respectively.