Essential oil composition from the seeds of Dalbergia odorifera T. Chen grown in Hainan, China

Introduction Dalbergia (Fabaceae) has a wide distribution, it is native to the tropical regions of Central and South America, Africa, Madagascar and southern Asia. Dalbergia odorifera T. Chen, a semi-deciduous arbor, is indigenous to Hainan, Guangdong and Guangxi Provinces of China. Its timber is high-grade material for furniture and crafts, and the essential oil of heartwood can be precious perfume fixative. Traditionally, Lignum Dalbergiae Odoriferae (D. odorifera), the heartwood of Dalbergia odorifera T. Chen, is used as a kind of Chinese medicine to treat ischemic diseases . It has been a major ingredient in various Chinese herbal preparations to treat cardiovascular diseases . The previous research focused on the heartwood or the leaves of D. odorifera T. Chen and Dalbergia sisso, a plant belonging to the same genus . The works showed that volatile oil 6 and flavonoids 7, 8 were the main components of the heartwood. The extracts from D. odorifera showed powerful antioxidant activity and synergistic effect with ascorbic acid against food peroxidation 9, . The inhibitory effects on the decrease of glutathione level of rat lens induced by UV irradiation was investigated , as well as a significant inhibition on the proliferation of human tumor cell lines . The aqueous extracts of D. odorifera showed a strong promoting angiogenesis activity both in vitro and in vivo . This is the first report on the essential oil of D. odorifera T. Chen seeds. Considering the ecological value and usefulness of the seeds, the aim of the present work was to analyze the major components of the essential oil in the seeds and compare the composition with the previous research of D. odorifera. In terms of the method, simultaneous distillation and extraction (SDE) was firstly adopted for this species. Stream distillation is most usually used in this kind of work 5, 14, . However, our previous experiments indicated that it was not effective in the extraction from seeds due to the little yield. SDE was found to be more efficient technique than other distillation processes for characterizing volatile components in terms of sample size and components extracted.