Análise da composição química do óleo essencial de diversas progenies de Piper aduncum L.

Abstract

The inventory of the aromatic flora of the Amazon region has been made by a group of researchers from the Adolpho Ducke Laboratory of the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi. Special emphasis has been given to the Piper species because they present essential oils with high yields and high contents of safrole, elemicine, myristicine and dilapiol allylbenes. With respect to safrole-rich essential oil, these researchers have previously established a cultivation and processing technology for Piper bispidineruium (long pepper) biomass. With respect to the essential oil of Piper aduncum L.. (peppercorns) the Group has proven that it has insecticidal, fungicidal, larvicidal and molluscicidal activities. For the domestication and management process, the collection of dones of the plant started in several areas of the Amazon, aiming to identify provenances with high yields of essential oil and high content of dilapiol, its major component. In this work, we analyzed 46 accessions of wolfberry pepper, collected near Belém and Manaus, in the south of Pará and in the middle of Amazonas. The plants, dried for about seven days, were hydrodistilled and their essential oils were analyzed by gas chromatography (with chemical ionization and mass spectrometry, CGLe CG-EM).The oil yield varied between 1.4 and 3.6% and the dilapiol content was between 61.3 and 86.6%. Some of these dones were recollected to better study the drying process and to provide a sufficient volume of essential oil for the dilapiol purification process. These studies are in progress and will be presented during the Scientific Initiation Seminar.