Abstract

Essential oil is a hydrophobic concentrated liquid which contains volatile aroma compounds from plants. Bambusa vulgaris grows widely in the tropical and subtropical regions and has been reported to have different ethnomedicinal values such as antimalaria and antioxidant. It is also known to be an ornamental plant. The essential oil was extracted from both the fresh and dried leaves of Bambusa vulgaris by hydrodistillation method using a Clevenger apparatus. The chemical constituents of the essential oils were characterized using gas chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The essential oils obtained are colourless with an herbal odour giving a yield of 0.64 w/w for the fresh sample and 1.08 w/w for the dried sample. A total of thirty-nine (39) compounds were identified from the essential oils of both samples. The major constituents in the fresh leaves were 3-aminodibenzofuran (19.2%), ?-ocimene (11.1%), undecane (9.6%), tridecane (8.6%), [3,2-b] pyridin-6-octahydropyrano (7.1%), 2-mono laurin (6.9%) and vinyl decanoate (5.9%). Prominent compounds of the essential oil in the dried leaves were chlorophenoxymethylenimino sulfur pentafluoride (74.5%) and 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-3,5-heptanedione (17.3%). Undecane, tridecane, hexadecane and octadecane were found both in the fresh and dried leaves. The chemical constituents of the essential oils from Nigeria Bambusa vulgaris were reported in this study for the first time to the best our knowledge and this could be useful in aromatherapy.

Keywords: Bambusa vulgaris, Clevenger apparatus, Essential oils, and Gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy