Essential Oil Composition of Leaf and Rhizome Oil of Alpinia nigra (Gaertner) B.L.Burtt. from Northeast India

The essential oils of the leaves and rhizomes of Alpinia nigra (Gaertner) B.L.Burtt., family Zingiberaceae, were obtained by hydrodistillation and yielded 0.02% and 0.4%, respectively. The oils were analyzed for their chemical composition by capillary GC and GC/MS. A total of 18 compounds were identified representing about 96.4% of leaf and 97.8% of rhizome oils, respectively. 1,8-cineole was the major component in both leaf (25.4%) and rhizome (34%) oils. In addition, β-pinene (15.1%), camphor (15.3%), carotol (7.3%), α-pinene (7.8%) and camphene (7.0%) were also present in leaf oil, whereas in the rhizome oil α-fenchyl acetate (13.1%), α-terpineol (9.6%), β-pinene (8.1%) and camphene (7.0%) were the other main constituents.