FLAVOUR AND FRAGRANCE JOURNAL

Flavour Fragr. J. 2001; 16: 334336

DOI: 10.1002/ffj.1005

Essential oil composition of Syzygium aromaticum leaf

from Little Andaman, India
V. K. Raina,1 S. K. Srivastava,1 K. K. Aggarwal,1 K. V. Syamasundar2 and Sushil Kumar1
1 Central
2 Central

Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, PO, CIMAP, Lucknow 226015, India
Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Field Station, PO, GKVK, Bangalore 560065, India

Received 16 January 2001

Revised 20 March 2001
Accepted 27 March 2001

ABSTRACT: The cloves are grown as plantation crops in the agroclimatic conditions of the Indian island of
Little Andaman. The dried leaves, on hydrodistillation, gave 4.8% of the oil. GC and GCMS analysis of the
oil resulted in the identification of 16 compounds. The major compound was eugenol (94.4%) followed by caryophyllene (2.9%). The clove oil from Little Andaman was found to be comparable with the best oil produced
in south India in terms of its eugenol content. It is suggested that clove can be grown as an economically viable
crop in the Andaman, Nicobar and Lakshdeep islands. Copyright 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
KEY WORDS: Syzygium aromaticum; Myrtaceae; leaf oil; essential oil composition; eugenol; caryophyllene

Introduction
Source of cloves and their oil is the evergreen tree1
Syzygium aromaticum (Linn.) Merr. et. L.M. Perry [syn.
Eugenia caryophyllus (Spreng). Bullock and Harrison].
The clove tree is native to India, Sri Lanka, Madagascar,
East Africa, Indonesia and Haiti. The clove plantations in
India are localized in Kerala and Tamilnadu states. The
plant is extensively cultivated in the Malagasy Republic, Indonesia, Tanzania (Zanzibar and Pemba), Penang
and Sri Lanka. The unopened green fully-grown buds,
upon drying, are the cloves spice of commerce. The
leaves, unopened buds and unripe fruits are aromatic
and contain essential oil. The clove is known to be
a traditional medicinal plant used as an expectorant,
anti-emetic, stimulant, antiflatulent and for treatment of
dyspepsia. It is also used as an anodyne and antiseptic in dentistry. Three types of clove essential oils2 are
produced commerciallythe clove leaf, stem and bud
oils; all three are extensively used in the flavour and fragrance industry. These oils are produced in all the clove
cultivation countries in proportion of their clove production. The major constituents of the clove essential oils
are eugenol, -caryophyllene, -humulene and humulene epoxide. These constituents are known to possess
antibacterial3 antifungal4 and anticarcinogenic5 properties. On account of various biological activities, clove
oils find uses in toothpaste, mouthwashes, soaps and
other cosmetic items. Because the technical use of clove
*Correspondence to: S. K. Srivastava, Central Institute of Medicinal
and Aromatic Plants, PO CIMAP, Lucknow, 226015, India.
CIMAP Communication No. 2001-IIJ

Copyright 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

oils is increasing, the importance of clove leaf essential

oil is growing.
A literature survey showed some work6 8 on the
chemical composition of clove leaf essential oil from
different parts of the world but there is no significant
work on the chemical composition of clove leaf oil from
Little Andaman, except for a short report by Kapahi
et al.9 This prompted us to carry out GCMS analysis
of the clove leaf oil from Little Andaman.

Experimental
Plant Material

During the visit of one of authors (KKA) to M/S

Andaman and Nicobar Islands Forest and Plantation
Development Corporation Ltd. Port Blair, the green
leaves of Syzygium aromaticum were collected from Little Andaman for its essential oil evaluation. The leaves
were dried in shade and hydrodistilled in a Clevengertype apparatus. A colourless oil was obtained in 4.8%
yield (v/w). The oil thus obtained was dried over anhydrous sodium sulphate and kept at 45 C in refrigerator
till analysis.

Gas Chromatography (GC)

GC analysis of the oil was performed on a PerkinElmer GC 8500, using a fused silica capillary column
(25 m 0.55 mm, film thickness 0.25 m), coated with

ESSENTIAL OIL OF SYZYGIUM AROMATICUM LEAF

dimethyl siloxane (BP-1). The oven temperature was

programmed from 60 C to 220 C at 5 C/ min, then
held isothermal at 220 C for 15 min; injector temperature, 250 C; detector temperature, 300 C; carrier gasnitrogen at a inlet pressure of 10 psi; split, 1 : 80.

335

Results and Discussion

apparatus, which gave an oil in 4.8% yield (v/w). GC and

GCMS analyses resulted in the identification of a total
of 16 constituents in clove leaf oil from Little Andaman.
The relative concentrations of the volatile components
identified are presented in Table 1, according to their
increasing elution order on a BP-1 column. Clove leaf oil
from Little Andaman was quite different from Indonesian clove leaf oil14 in respect of its eugenol (94.4,
71.0%), caryophyllene (2.9, 14.0%) and -humulene
(0.36, 1.75%) contents, respectively. On the other hand,
it matched to a great extent with the leaf oil reported by
Gopalakrishanan and Narayayanan from south India15
in its eugenol content (94.4, 95.2%). It is interesting to
note that -caryophyllene (2.9%), nerol (0.79%) and caryophyllene oxide (0.67%) were present in substantial
quantity in the oil from Little Andaman, while these constituents were either absent or present only in traces in
the leaf oil from south India. Similarly, eugenyl acetate
(1.5%) and -farnesol (0.5%) were present only in the
oil from south India. This variation in the percentage
composition of the above constituents may be due to the
variation in the agroclimatic and geographical conditions
or varietal differences of the places of origin of the oils.
From the above facts, it is evident that the quality of the
essential oil obtained from the clove leaves from Little
Andaman is competitive with the best oil produced in
south India. Hence, the mature leaves of S. aromaticum
can be considered as an economical source for the commercial isolation of natural eugenol. It is suggested that
the region of the Andaman, Nicobar and Lakshdeep
islands having similar soils and agroclimates can be well
exploited for more and more areas of clove cultivation
for the production of clove leaf oil, which will find a
very good market in the flavour and fragrance industry
due to its higher eugenol content.

The volatile oil was obtained by conventional hydrodistillation of S. aromaticum leaves in a Clevenger-type

AcknowledgementsThe authors are highly grateful to Sh. A. P.

Kahol, Deputy Director and Head Chemical Engineering Division,
CIMAP, Lucknow, for his keen interest in this work.

Table 1. Percentage composition of Syzygium aromaticum (Linn.) Merr. et L. M. Perry, leaf oil from Little
Andaman

References

Gas ChromatographyMass Spectrometry

(GCMS)

GCMS data were obtained on a Shimadzu QP-2000

Mass Spectrometer instrument at 70 eV and 250 C.
GC column: Ulbon HR-1 (equivalent to OV-1), fused
silica capillary column (0.25 mm 50 m, film thickness
0.25 m). The initial temperature was 100 C for 7 mm,
and then heated at 5 C/ min to 250 C. Carrier gas,
helium a flow rate of 2 ml/min.
Identification of Compounds

Compounds were identified by comparing the retention

indices of the peaks on the BP-1 column with literature values, computer matching against the library spectra built up using pure substances and components of
known essential oils, and finally confirmed by comparison of mass spectra with published data. The relative
amounts of individual components are based on peak
areas obtained without FID response factor correction.
The Kovats retention indices were calculated from gas
chromatograms by the logarithmic equation using the
homologous series of n-alkanes (C-8 to C-22: Poly Science Inc., Niles, USA) as standards.10 13

S.No.

Components

RI

Percentage

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

(E )--Ocimene
Linalool
Terpinen-4-ol
Nerol
Eugenol
-Copaene
-Caryophyllene
-Humulene
(E,E )--Farnesene
-Cadinene
(E )-Nerolidol
-Caryophyllene oxide
Humulene oxide II
t-Cadinol
Cadalene
Hexadecyl acetate

1038
1086
1170
1230
1337
1377
1419
1453
1495
1519
1564
1575
1599
1626
1653
2010

0.03
0.08
0.03
0.79
94.41
0.04
2.91
0.36
0.06
0.18
0.03
0.67
0.07
0.07
0.18
0.09

Copyright 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Flavour Fragr. J. 2001; 16: 334336