Chemical composition of the essential oil and fixed oil Bauhinia pentandra (Bong.) D. Dietr.

Background: Bauhinia pentandra is popularly known as "mororo" and inhabits the Caatinga and Savannah biomes. Objective: This paper reports the chemical composition of the essential and fatty oils of the leaves from B. pentandra . Materials and Methods: The essential oil was obtained by hydrodistillation and the fixed oil by extraction with hexane, followed by saponification with KOH/MeOH, and methylation using MeOH/HCl. The constituents were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Results: The major constituent of the essential oil was the phytol (58.78% ±8.51%), and of the fatty oil were palmitic (29.03%), stearic (28.58%) and linolenic (10.53%) acids. Conclusion: Of the compounds identified in the essential oil, three are first reported in this species, and this is the first record of the chemical composition of the fixed oil.