The Chemical Composition of the Essential Oils from the Leaves, Bark and Fruits of Bursera simaruba (L.) Sarg. from Jamaica

Oils of the leaves, bark and fruits of Bursera simaruba collected from the Long Mountain region of Jamaica were isolated by hydrodistillation and analyzed by GC-FID and GC/MS. From our analyses of the oils from the leaves, bark and fruits 46, 54 and 19 components were identified which constituted 93.6%, 97.9% and 100% of the total oils. The leaf oils were dominated by sesquiterpenes (70.1%), the major ones being trans-cadina-1(6),4-diene (9.7%) followed by β-caryophyllene (9.0%), α-humulene (6.2%), β-elemene (5.6%) α-cadinol (4.7%), α-selin-11-en-4-ol (4.2%), caryophyllene oxide (3.2%) and δ-selinene (3.1%). The major monoterpenes were α-pinene (10.2%), myrcene (5.2%) and β-pinene (3.4%). The major monoterpene components of the bark were α-pinene (32.1%), β-pinene (13.5%) and isolimonene (5.6%) while the major sesquiterpenes were viridiflorol (7.1%), β-caryophyllene (4.9%), β-selinene (4.3%), α-humulene (3.1%) and caryophyllene oxide (3.1%). The fruit oil was characterized by a high portion of monoterpenes, the major ones being α-pinene (27.8%), β-pinene (24.1%), terpinen-4-ol (13.3%), sabinene (8.1%), iso-sylvestrene (4.9%), limonene (4.4%) and γ-terpinolene (3.5%).