Progress in Essential Oils

By: Brian M. Lawrence

Posted: June 21, 2006, from the July 2006 issue of P&F magazine.

Mandarin oil

The composition of a hydrodistilled peel oil of the ‘Santra’ cultivar of mandarin (ex Citrus reticulata Blanco) was analyzed by Mahalwal and Ali (2001). The composition of this oil was determined to be as follows:

alpha-pinene (0.9 percent)

beta-pinene (3.2 percent)

limonene (59.6 percent)

myrcene^† (4.1 percent)

terpinolene (3.5 percent)

trans-pinocarveol (0.5 percent)

terpinen-4-ol (0.5 percent)

alpha-terpineol (0.6 percent)

nonanol (0.2 percent)

cyclodecanol† (0.2 percent)

germacrene D-4-ol (0.1 percent)

^†Incorrect identification based on GC elution order

In addition, the author also identified an alkyl phthalate in the oil. This was a mistake because it obviously was a plasticizer contaminant. The peel oil of Venezuelan mandarins produced by hydrodistillation was found by Gonzalez de et al. (2002) to contain the following major constituents:

alpha-pinene (0.92 percent)

myrcene (1.37 percent)

limonene (80.81 percent)

gamma-terpinene (4.50 percent)

linalool (11.33 percent)

alpha-terpineol (1.06 percent)

This is only an excerpt of the full article that appeared in P&F Magazine, but you can purchase the full-text version.