Chemical Composition of the Essential Oil ofRhododendron lepidotum Wall. ex D. Don Growing in Kashmir Himalayas

The essential oil obtained by the hydrodistillation of the leaves of Rhododendron lepidotum L growing wild in the high Himalayas of Jammu and Kashmir was analyzed by a combination of capillary GC-FID and GC/MS analytical techniques. The study led to the identification and quantification of 34 chemical constituents belonging to different classes of compounds and accounting for 94.2% of the total oil composition. The oil composition is dominated by the presence of monoterpene hydrocarbons (78.9%). The principal components were α-pinene and β-pinene (54.4% and 12.5% respectively) along with limonene (6.5%), γ-terpinene (2.2%), bornyl acetate (2.8%) and α-humulene (4.2%).