Aromatic Plants of French Polynesia. V. Chemical Composition of Essential Oils of Leaves of Psidium guajava L. and Psidium cattleyanum Sabine

Abstract The leaf oils of Psidium guajava and Psidium catlleyanum collected in French Polynesia have been examined for the first time in Tahiti by GC and combined GC/MS. The leaf oil of P. guajava contained a mixture of sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (54.9%) and oxygenated sesquiterpenes (20.9%) with β-caryophyllene (18.3%) as the principal sesquiterpene hydrocarbon and selin-11-en-4a-ol (6.9%), α-cadinol (3.6%), (E)-nerolidol (3.2%) as the main oxygenated sesquiterpenes. Psidium cattleyanum produced oil that was much richer in sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (48.8%) and monoterpene hydrocarbons (10.1%). The main sesquiterpenes present in the oil were β-caryophyllene (31.5%) and α-humulene (4.4%). The two oils also contained a small amount of aromatic compounds, benzaldehyde (2.4%) in P. guajava oil, and the two isomers (E)-methyl isoeugenol (0.6%) and (Z)-methyl-isoeugenol (0.1%) in P. cattleyanum oil.