Leaf Volatile Oil Constituants of Schinus Terebinthifolius and Schinus Molle from Tunisia

Members of the genus Schinus mainly S. terebinthifolius (Brazilian pepper tree) and S. molle (Peruvian pepper tree) have long been recognized as a consolidate sources of functional ingredients namely essential oils and phenols. Despite the substantial data on the volatile oil constituents of their fruits, the leaf volatile fraction has not received much interest. Consequently, the aim of the present study is to analyse the chemical composition of the essential oils of the aforementioned species. The Results show that the hydrodistillation of air dried leaves yielded a pale yellowish oil with pungent and pepper like aroma in 0.75 and 1.06% (w/w dw) for S. terebinthifolius and S. molle, respectively. In both oil samples, monoterpenes hydrocarbons were the most represented class of volatile. Amongst their derivatives, α-phellandrene (46.64–22.16%), β-phellandrene (28.53–6.49%), α-pinene (4.94–5.20%), and β-myrcene (5.04–0.84%) were the main components. Even if the oil samples showed the same main constituents, there was a considerable qualitative and quantitative difference. In summary, both species could be considered as potential sources of volatile oil because of their higher essential oil yields. Such feature appears to be characteristic of the genus Schinus. Moreover, the occurrence of some volatile compounds (e.g α-phellandrene, α-pinene, β-myrcene and β-caryophyllene) with documented biological activities could justify the traditional uses of these species.