Chemistry of the Main Component of Essential Oil of Litsea cubeba and Its Derivatives

The tree of Litsea cubeba is widely spread in China, Indonesia and other part of Southeast Asia. The essential oil of Litsea cubeba (EOLC) is obtained by steam distillation from the pepper-like fruits tree Litsea cubeba. The EOLC consists of about 29 active compounds. Among them, citral is the main component; the content of citral is nearly 80% of the EOLC. Due to the special function group, citral is easy to react with many chemicals. Thus, EOLC is usually applied as starting material to carry out aldol condensation, reduction, and six-member ring forming reaction. The EOLC is extensively employed to synthesis of geranal nitriles, pseudonoe, ionone, methyl ionone, Vitamin E and Vitamin A. These products are broadly applied in the fields of fragrance, perfume, medicine and so on. This paper presents comprehensive utilization of EOLC as raw materials to synthesize many active chemicals.