Progress in Essential Oils: Carrot Seed Oil

Although there are 15 subspecies of Daucus carota and two varietal forms of D. carota L. subsp. sativus (Hoffm.) Archang, carrot seed oil is obtained solely from the infertile mature fruit (seeds) of a range of commercial cultivars of the vegetable carrot that have been developed through selection from the original wild carrot of the same taxonomic origin.

The oil of carrot and carrot seed has been the subject of a number of reviews; for example, Lawrence 1976, 1980, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1999, 2003 and 2006. Valterova et al. (1997) examined the headspace monoterpene hydrocarbons of D. carota subsp. sativus leaves using multidimensional GC and two chiral columns.

The results of hydrocarbons characterized in the leaf headspace are described in the present article. Also described is the chiral analysis of five constituents found in the headspace; the GC/MS findings by Jasicka-Misiak et al. (2004) of a commercial sample of carrot seed oil;  Kula et al.'s (2006) analysis of oils produced from the fresh and air-dried flowering umbels of the ‘Perfkcja,’ ‘Koral’ and ‘Dolanka’ cultivars of D.carota subsp. sativus using GC-FID and GC/MS; and others.

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