By Koranappally B. Rameshkumar, Varughese George and Sugathan Shiburaj

Abstract: Abstract: The leaf oil of Cinnamomum chemungianum obtained by hydrodistillation was analyzed by GC/FID and GC/MS and found to contain 41 constituents, of which 31 constituents comprising 85.7% were identified. The major constituents were the sesquiterpenoids β-selinene (21.0%), intermedeol (13.5%), longiborneol (7.1%) and caryophyllene oxide (6.4%). Antibacterial screening of the oil showed moderate activity against certain strains of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Key Word Index: Cinnamomum chemungianum, Lauraceae, essential oil composition, β-selinene, intermedeol, antibacterial activity.

Introduction
Cinnamomum chemungianum Mohan et Henry (Lauraceae) is reported in 1991 from Chemungi, Kerala, Southern India. ‘Chemungi’ is a botanically rich area in the southwestern Ghats of India and the type locality of many taxa (1). The plant is an evergreen shrub or small tree, 3–4 m tall with slender branches, leaves 3–7 by 2–4 cm, thinly coriaceous, ovate, caudate acuminate at apex, rounded at base with 0.6–1 cm long petioles (1).

Out of the nine endemic species of Cinnamomum from southwestern Ghats in India (2), we have reported on the leaf oil constituents of C. filipedicellatum (3) and C. heyneanum (4). Eugenol has been reported as the major constituent in C. impresinervium leaf oil (5), whereas benzyl benzoate was the major constituent in the leaves of C. aureofulvum (6). Neral, linalool, cinnamyl acetate and cinnamaldehyde were reported as the major constituents of the leaf oil of C. osmophloeum (7). The oils of some of the Cinnamomum species showed antimicrobial activities (6–8).