FLAVOUR AND FRAGRANCE JOURNALFlavour Fragr. J.2001;16: 44–46

Essential oil composition of geranium (Pelargonium sp.)from the plains of Northern India

Neetu Jain,1 K. K. Aggarwal,1 K. V. Syamasundar,2 S. K. Srivastava1∗ and Sushil Kumar1

1Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, PO CIMAP, Lucknow 226016, India2Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Field Station, GKVK PO, Bangalore 560065, India

Received 16 March 2000Revised 7 August 2000Accepted 9 August 2000

ABSTRACT: Indian geranium (Pelargoniumsp.) cultivar ‘Bourbon’ was grown in agroclimatic conditions ofNorth Indian plains at Lucknow. The herbaceous parts, on steam distillation, gave 0.13% of oil on a fresh weightbasis. GC and GC–MS analysis of the oil resulted in the identification of 69 constituents, representing 97.9% ofthe oil. The geranium oil produced at Lucknow is comparable to that produced in southern hills of India in termsof its citronellol and geraniol content. It is suggested that geranium can be grown as an economically viable cropin the northern plains of India. Copyright 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

KEY WORDS: Pelargoniumsp.; essential oil; citronellol; geraniol; 10-epi- -eudesmol; geranium from northernplains of India

Introduction

The essential oil of geranium is one of the most impor-tant items in the perfumery, cosmetic and flavour-ing industries.1 In India, geranium was introduced inthe beginning of the twentieth century, and later ontwo types of geranium, called ‘Algerian’ or ‘Tunisian’and ‘Bourbon’ or ‘Reunion’ were identified. Recently,another clone, ‘Kelkar’, has been introduced, whose oilpossesses a citronellol:geraniol ratio of 1 : 52. In India,only these three clones of geranium are traditionallybeing cultivated as perennial crops in the higher-altitudeareas of the Nilgiri and Palni hills of Tamilnadu underrain-fed conditions. Significant work on geranium essen-tial oil has been carried out in different parts of India andit was found that chemical composition is influenced bylocation,3 drying of biomass prior to distillation,4 ageof the leaves,5 method of distillation,6 application ofgrowth regulators,7 storage of oil,8 presence of weed,9

wilt desease,10 and the effect of the semi-arid tropicalclimate.11 Recently Kulkarniet al.12 reported the essen-tial oil composition of two variants of geranium thatwere rich in isomenthone (64.4% and 67.7%). Morerecently, Kaulet al.13 reported some aberration in thecomposition of the herb oil of rose-scented geraniumcv. ‘Bourbon’ growing in India and found great varia-tion in menthone, isomenthone, citronellol and geraniol(and their esters), as well as 10-epi- -eudesmol, which

*Correspondence to: S. K. Srivastava, Central Institute of Medicinaland Aromatic Plants, PO CIMAP, Lucknow, 226016, India.

got shifted from 1.4% to 22% due to soil and mois-ture. The usual composition of the main components ofcv. ‘Bourbon’ produced during the rainy, autumn, springand winter seasons in India are similar to that reportedby Bhattacharyaet al.11 and Kulkarni et al.12 On theother hand, the oil produced during summer was rich incitronellol compared to geraniol, which may be due tothermal and moisture stress and other harsh conditions.Against a yearly internal demand of 65 tonnes,14 Indiaproduces only about 5 tonnes of geranium oil per year.15

In order to meet the internal demand, investigations arebeing carried out for the increased production of gera-nium oil in India, by cultivation of geranium in a varietyof agroclimatic zones of the country and by improvingagrotechnology for increased yield of oil per unit area.16

In order to cultivate geranium as an annual crop in var-ied agroclimatic zones, the three cultivars of geraniumcalled ‘Algerian’, ‘Bourbon’ and ‘Kelkar’ were intro-duced in the northern Indian plains at Lucknow.17 Thepresent paper reports the essential oil composition of a‘Bourbon’ clone, grown in the northern Indian plains, incomparison with the parental cultivar, grown at higheraltitude in the southern Indian hills.

Experimental

Plant Material

The ‘Bourbon’ cultivar was obtained from ourKodaikanal field station in the southern hills, and rooted

Copyright 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

ESSENTIAL OIL OFPELARGONIUMSP. 45

cuttings were planted in our experimental farm inthe northern Indian plains at Lucknow. Plants wereharvested when they were 4 months old and theiressential oils were obtained by steam distillation.

Gas Chromatography (GC)

GC analysis of the oil was performed on a Perkin-Elmer GC 8500, using a fused silica capillary col-umn (25 mð 0.55 mm, film thickness 0.25µm), coatedwith dimethyl siloxane (BP-1). Oven temperature wasprogrammed from 60°C to 220°C at 5°C/min andthen held isothermal at 220°C for 15 min; injectortemperature, 250°C; detector temperature, 300°C; car-rier gas, nitrogen at a linear velocity of 10 psi; split,1 : 80.

Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry(GC–MS)

GC–MS data were obtained on a Perkin-Elmer Turbo-Mass Spectrometer instrument using a PE-Wax column(60 mð 0.32 mm i.d., film thickness 0.25µm); carriergas, helium; temperature programming, 5 min at 70°C,then rising at 2°C/min to 120°C and at 3°C/min to240°C.

Identification of Compounds

Compounds were identified by comparing the retentionindices of the peaks on BP-1 column with literaturevalues,12,18–21 computer matching against the libraryspectra built up using pure substances and components ofknown essential oils, and finally confirmed by compar-ison of mass spectra of peaks with published data.20–22

Relative amounts of individual components are based onpeak areas obtained without FID response factor cor-rection. The Kov́at’s retention indices were obtainedfrom gas chromatograms by logarithmic interpolationbetween bracketingn-alkanes. The homologous series ofn-alkanes (C-8 to C-22; Poly Science Inc; Niles, USA)were used as standards.

Results and Discussion

The volatile oil was obtained by conventional steamdistillation of herbaceous parts of Indian geranium(Pelargoniumsp.), cv ‘Bourbon’, which gave an oil in0.13% yield on a fresh weight basis. GC and GC–MSanalysis enabled the identification of a total of 69 con-stituents in geranium oil grown in the northern plainsof India. The relative concentration of the volatile com-ponents identified are presented in Table 1 according totheir elution order on the BP-1 column.

Table 1. Percentage composition of essential oil of theIndian geranium (Pelargonium sp.) ‘Bourbon’ grown innorthern and southern hills of India

Area (%)Compounda RI Northern plains Southern hillsŁ

(Z)-3-Hexen-1-ol 834 t 0.1Heptan-2-one 875 t —Heptan-2-ol 886 t —˛-Pinene 933 0.3 0.3Camphene 946 — tSabinene 966 t 0.1ˇ-Pinene 973 t —Myrcene 983 0.1 0.7˛-Phellandrene 995 t 0.1p-Cymene 1013 0.1 0.1Limonene 1023 0.1 0.31,8-Cineole 1023 0.1 —(Z)-ˇ-Ocimene 1028 t 0.2(E)-ˇ-Ocimene 1040 0.1 0.3cis-Linalool oxide 1063 0.1 0.1trans-Linalool oxide 1076 0.1 tTerpinolene 1081 — tLinalool 1089 5.3 6.7cis-Rose oxide 1097 0.8 0.4trans-Rose oxide 1115 0.3 0.2Photocitral-A 1125 0.1 —Menthone 1139 4.8 0.1iso-Menthone 1148 3.1 7.9Terpenen-4-ol 1164 0.1 —Menthol 1173 0.1 —˛-Terpineol 1178 0.3 0.3CitronellolC nerol 1220 33.6 26.7Geraniol 1247 20.2 24.1Geranial 1250 0.7 0.5Citronellyl formate 1261 6.6 8.2Neryl formate 1264 0.1 0.1Geranyl formate 1283 4.5 3.1Linalyl propionate 1323 0.1 —Citronellyl acetate 1333 0.3 0.2˛-Cubebene 1351 — tGeranyl acetate 1359 0.3 0.3˛-Yalangene 1372 0.1 —˛-Copaene 1377 0.3 0.1ˇ-Bourbonene 1386 0.8 0.5˛-Cedrene 1411 t —ˇ-Caryophyllene 1420 0.8 0.5Citronellyl propionate 1429 0.1 —˛-Cadinene 1439 0.1 —Guaia-6,9-diene 1443 0.1 0.1Geranyl propionate 1448 0.4 0.5˛-Humulene 1553 0.1 0.1(E)-ˇ-Farnesene 1461 0.2 —allo-Aromadendrene 1471 0.3 —Germacrene-D 1478 0.1 0.9˛-Muurolene 1484 0.1 —Geranyl-iso-butyrate 1487 0.1 — -Elemene 1499 0.1 —Citronellyl butyrate 1506 0.2 — -Cadinene 1510 0.1 —Calamenene 1513 0.3 0.2υ-Cadinene 1517 t —Geranyl butyrate 1532 0.2 0.2(E)-Nerolidol 1546 0.1 —2-Phenylethyl tiglate 1555 1.0 0.9Furopelargone B 1571 0.1 0.1Geranyl-iso-valerate 1579 0.7 0.3Citronellyl valerate 1600 0.2 —10-epi- -Eudesmol 1618 5.6 7.6T-Cadinol 1624 0.1 —Geranyl valerate 1629 0.2 0.1ˇ-Eudesmol 1633 0.1 0.1˛-Cadinol 1641 0.1 —Citronellyl tiglate 1644 0.9 1.5Geranyl tiglate 1671 1.8 1.6Geranyl hexanoate 1723 0.1 —Geranyl heptanoate 1820 0.1 —Geranyl octanoate 1934 t —

a Compounds are listed in the order of elution on BP-1column.Ł Taken from reference 8; tD Trace.

Copyright 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Flavour Fragr. J.2001;16: 44–46

46 N. JAIN ET AL.

Geranium oil produced at Lucknow was compara-ble to that produced in the traditional area of geraniumcultivation in southern India in terms of its citronelloland geraniol contents. The major constituents in the oilfrom northern and southern parts of India are citronellol(33.6% and 26.7%), geraniol (20.2% and 24.1%), cit-ronellyl formate (6.6% and 8.2%), 10-epi- -eudesmol(5.6% and 7.6%), linalool (5.3% and 6.7%), geranylformate (4.5% and 3.1%) andiso-menthone (3.1% and7.9%). On the other hand, menthone occurred in sub-stantial quantity (4.8%) only in the oil from the north-ern plains. Variation in the percentage composition ofthe main constituents may be due to the variation intheir agroclimatic and geographical conditions. FromTable 1 it is evident that the citronellol:geraniol ratiois significantly changed in plants grown on the north-ern plains. The citronellol content in the oil increases,while the geraniol content decreases. A similar obser-vation was also recorded in an earlier investigation byRam et al.17 on plants grown in the northern plains.On the basis of the above findings, it may be corre-lated that at lower altitude citronellol content increasesand geraniol content decreases inPelargoniumcultivar‘Bourbon’.

From the above facts it is evident that the quality ofthe essential oil harvested from the annual crop of gera-nium at Lucknow is competitive with the best geraniumoil produced in the southern hills. The two geranium oils,a ‘Reunion’-type and an ‘African’ type, are recognizedin commerce. Based on the higher content of 10-epi- -eudesmol (5.6% and 7.6%) than guaia-6,9-diene (0.1%and 0.1%), both the oils discussed in this paper can beclassified as ‘African’-type oils. A characteristic featureof ‘Reunion’ geranium oil is the presence of large quantityof guaia-6,9-diene,23–24 while in ‘African’-type oils 10-epi- -eudesmol (5.6% and 7.6%) is present in substantialquantity.25 Finally, the presence of the same major compo-nents in the essential oils grown in the northern plains andthe southern hills of India shows, to a certain extent, sta-bility of geranium (Pelargonium sp.) cultivar ‘Bourbon’in its chemical aspect. On the basis of the above facts, it isconcluded that geranium can be grown as an economicallyviable crop in the northern plains of India.

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Copyright 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Flavour Fragr. J.2001;16: 44–46