Chemical Composition of Flowers Essential Oils of Four Varieties from Caesalpinia pulcherrima (L) W

The chemical composition of essential oils from four varieties; yellow, pink, red and orange; of Caesalpinia pulcherrima was determined. The GC/MS analyses identified 22 components in yellow variety. Caryophyllene oxide (49.13 %), epi-alpha-muurolol (4.96 %), alpha-cadinol (4.47 %) and alpha-copaene (4.25 %) were the main components. The essential oil of the orange variety had 30 components. alpha-Pinene (25.65 %), E-caryophyllene (16.28 %), alpha-cadinol (5.05 %), beta-pinene (4.88 %) and germacrene D (4.69 %) were the important constituents. In red variety 30 components were identified of which caryophyllene oxide (31.18 %), alpha-copaene (25.52 %), epi-alpha-muurolol (5.50 %) and alpha-cadinol (5.16 %) were significant while in pink variety 20 identified components contained germacrene D (33.42 %), E-caryophyllene (20.56 %) and alpha-cadinene (6.61 %) were detected. The difference in the chemical composition profile among Caesalpinia pulcherrima flower varieties indicates that they may present different biological activities.