Wendel J.T. Pontes, José C.S. de Oliveira, Claudio A.G. da Camara,* and Adelmo C.H.R. Lopes, Manoel Guedes Corrêa Gondim Júnior and José Vargas de Oliveira, Manfred O. E. Schwartz

Abstract: The essential oils from two sources of resinous exudates of Protium bahianum obtained by hydrodistillation were analyzed by combinations of GC and GC/MS. Twenty-two and thirteen components were identified in the oils from fresh and aged resins, comprising 95.8 % and 98.6 %, of the oils, respectively. The aged resin oil contained a high percentage of oxygen-containing sesquiterpenes (85.4 %) with a high predominance of β-(Ζ)-santalol acetate (83.1 %). In contrast, no sesquiterpenes were detected in the fresh resin oil and it was constituted basically by monoterpenes hydrocarbons (42.4 %) and oxygen-containing monoterpenes (27.7 %), of which α-phellandrene (13.9 %) and terpinen-4-ol (7.4 %) were the major components, respectively. The acaricidal activities against Tetranychus urticae of the resin oil were also investigated. Both oils showed fumigant toxicity (mortality and fecundity), but only the aged resin oil induced repellence.

The family Burseraceae comprises 21 genera and 600 species mainly distributed in South America, the Malaysian region and Africa (1). In neotropics, this family is largely represented by the genus <i>Protium</i> with 135 species (2). In Brazil, the highest distribution and diversification of species from this family is in the Amazonian region. However, species of genus <i>Protium</i> can be easily found on Northeast Brazilian beach regions in sandy, wet or dry soils, like in the restinga forest of Pernambuco. Species of this genus are characterized by exuding aromatic resins, which are responsible for the prominence of Burseraceae species in ethnobotany of the regions where they occur, e.g. the restinga of Ariquindá in the state of Pernambuco is rich in tree species like <i>Protium</i> spp, where the resinous exudate collected from the ground, at the foot of producing species is used in popular medicine for treatment of wounds, of ulcers, as anti-inflammatory agent and as an insect repellent (3,4). Some pharmacological studies using the oil resin were made to verify the therapeutical efficacy, which proved by their surprising results the use as anti-inflammatory, antinoceptive, antineoplasic and gastro-protective potential (5–8).