Current Research Journal of Biological Sciences 3(2): 100-103, 2011
ISSN: 2041-0778
© Maxwell Scientific Organization, 2011
Received: October 11, 2010
Accepted: November 15, 2010
Published: March 05, 2011
Essential Oil Composition of the Flowering Aerial Parts of Sudanese
Morettia phillaeana (Del.) DC
1
A.A. El-Egami, 1B.O. Burham and 2H.H. El-Kamali
Department of Phytochemistry, Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Research Institute,
National Centre for Research, P.O. Box # 2404, Ministry of Science and Technology,
Khartoum, Sudan
2
Department of Botany, Omdurman Islamic University, P.O. Box # 382, Omdurman, Sudan
1
Abstract: The aim of this study is to present qualitative and quantitative analysis of the essential oil obtained
from the flowering aerial parts of Morettia phillaeana growing in the Central Sudan. The essential oil of
flowering aerial parts of M. phillaeana, which belongs to Brassicaceae family, was obtained by hydrodistillation
method in 0.5% yield and analyzed by GC/MS. Seven compounds representing 93.67% of the oil were
identified. Among them 4-isothiocyanato1-Butene (69.35%), isothiocyanatomethyl Benzene (18.88%), cymene
(2.65%), C9H14O3 (2.3%) and 2-phenyl acetonitrile (2.18%) were the major constituents of the oil. The oil
showed a pale yellow colour and a strong characteristic sulfury odour. Compounds like isothiocyanates,
glucosinolates and nitriles found in Brassicaceous plants and their breakdown products are beneficial in the
past and hold great prospects for the future with respect to an integrated pest management.
Key words: Brassicaceae, essential oil composition, isothiocyanato-methyl benzene, Morettia phillaeana, 4isothiocyanato-1-Butene
INTRODUCTION
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Continuing our investigations on chemistry of
essential oils from Sudanese aromatic plants, we have
analyzed the essential oil of Morettia phillaeana (Del.)
DC, a plant native in the Sudan.
M. phillaeana (Brassicaceae) is one of two Morettia
species which occur in Sudan (Andrews, 1950). It grows
in the Northern and central regions of the country, where
it is known by the popular name of "Gabshah". Its smell
is characteristic. Stiff erect hispid herb. Leaves linear to
lanceolate, hoary or hispid. Petals pinkish-white, slightly
longer than the very hairy sepals.
Fruit strongly curved. Phytochemical studies
conducted on the methanolic extract of the flowering
aerial parts of M. phillaeana reported the presence of
flavonoids (Burham, 2008), which revealed some in vitro
antibacterial activity (El-Kamali and Ahmed, 2006).
The plant is used by the Sudanese local people to
nourish the sheep and chicken. It has also been used as an
ingredient in local medicine for several ailments. The lack
of records of previous chemical studies of the essential oil
stimulated us to initiate them through the present work.
The aim of this study is to present qualitative and
quantitative analysis of the oil of this plant species
growing in the Central Sudan.
This study was done in October 2009 in the Central
Laboratory, Ministry of Science and Technology,
Khartoum, Sudan.
Plant material: The flowering aerial parts of
M. phillaeana (Fig. 1) were collected from EL-Fiteehab
area, University City Campus, Omdurman Islamic
University in the Omdurman south, Khartoum State,
Central Sudan, in January 2009. Botanical identification
of the plant was conducted by the Botanist Hamza Tag
EL-Sir, University of Khartoum, Faculty of Agriculture,
Botany Department Herbarium. Voucher specimens of the
plant are deposited in the Herbarium of the Omdurman
Islamic University, Omdurman, Sudan (HK 489).
Preparation of the essential oil: The finely dry
powdered flowering aerial parts (250 g) were subjected to
Hydrodistillation (4 h) using Clevenger-type apparatus
(British Pharmacopoea, 1993). The obtained oil (2.5 mL)
was dried over anhydrous sodium sulphate and stored at
low temperature prior to analysis.
GC/MS analysis: GC/MS analysis was conducted using
a Shimatzu QP 2010 GC/MS instrument equipped with
reference libraries. The flow rate of helium as carrying
Corresponding Author: H.H. El-Kamali, Department of Botany, Faculty of Science and Technology, Omdurman Islamic
University, P.O. Box # 382, Omdurman, Sudan
100
Curr. Res. J. Biol. Sci., 3(2): 100-103, 2011
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The essential oil obtained from Morettia phillaeana
growing in Sudan has not previously been subjected to
any chemical investigation. Aerial flowering parts of
M. phillaeana growing wild in Sudan provided a pale
light yellow colored essential oil with a very strong,
pungent and characteristic sulfury odor. The yield of
volatile oil was 0.5%. The components of the oil, the
percentage of each constituent, the retention time (RT),
molecular weight and molecular formula of each
compound, mass peaks, base peaks and main fragment
ions are listed in Table 1. Morettia oil was well separated
by GC/MS as shown in Fig. 2. The structure of some
compounds of the essential oil extracted from
M. phillaeana are given in Fig. 3.
The essential oil obtained from Morettia phillaeana
growing in Sudan has not previously been subjected to
any chemical investigation. The oil was found to be a
complex mixture of aldehydes, nitriles, sulur-containing
compound and monoterpenes. Seven compounds
accounting 93.67% of the oil were characterized using
GC/MS. Major compounds of the oil are 4isothiocyanato-1-Butene
(69.35%), isothiocyanatomethyl Benzene (18.88%), cymene (2.65%), C9H14O3
(2.31%) and 2-phenyl acetonitrile (2.18%).
Fig. 1: The flowering aerial parts of M. phillaeana
gas was 1 mL/min. The temperature program consisted of
60-270 C with rate of 4 C/min. MS were taken at 70 eV.
Identification of the constituents was based on computer
matching against commercial Wiley, Mass Finder 2.1
Library and MS literature data (Adams, 2001).
10.0
20.0
Fig. 2: Total ion chromatogram of components in M. phillaeana
101
40.0
46.910
35.396
30.0
38-001
22.124
17.882
6.076
8.069
9.746
10.467
12.432
13.328
2.084
18.922
23,014,363
TIC*1.00
50.0
57.0 min
Curr. Res. J. Biol. Sci., 3(2): 100-103, 2011
Table 1: Chemical composition of the essential of M. phillaeana
Retention
Molecular formula
No.
time
Compound
(Molecular weight)
1
0.084I
Isothiocyanato-cyclopropane
C4H5NS (99)
2
4.897
4- isothiocyanato-1-Butene
C5H7 NS (113)
3
6.076
Cymene
C10H14 (134)
4
8.274
Unidentified
C10H16 (136)
5
8.567
Nonanal
C10H18O (142)
6
9.069
Unidentified
C10H18O (154)
%
0.12
69.35
2.65
0.12
0.15
0.48
Mass
peaks
256
49
72
334
301
294
Base
peaks
99
72
119.10
93.10
57.10
93.05
7
8
9.746
10.467
2-Phenyl acetonitrile
P-methan-3 one
C8H7N (117)
C10H18O (154)
2.18
0.21
119
316
117.05
112.10
9
12.432
Unidentified
C14H25B (204)
0.28
477
120.10
10
11
12
13
14
15
13.328
17.882
18.922
22.124
35.396
38.001
Unidentified
Pentane -1,2-diol
Isothiocyanatomethyl Benzene
Unidentified
Unidentified
6,10,14,-trimethyl 2-Pentadecanone
C4H8N2S (116)
C5H12O2 (104)
C8H7NS (149)
C7H14O (114)
C9H14O3 (170)
0.28
0.15
0.51
18.88
0.92
2.31
307
275
64
326
277
314
116
55.05
91.05
55.05
55.05
58.05
16
46.910
3,7,11,15-tetramethylhexadec-2-en-1-ol C20H40O (296)
1.36
268
71.05
S
N
S
S
Main fragment ions (m/z)
13,27,41,44,59,71,84,99
12,27,39,55,59,72,85,113
27,41,51,65,77,91,103,119,134
41,43,67,79,93,105,121,136
13,27,41,43,57,70,95,98,114
27,41,55,67,79,93,107,121,13
6,154
27,39,51,63,77,90,102
27,41,55,69,70,97,111,112,13
9,140,154
27,41,53,67,79,93,108,120,13
4,147,161,204
41,55,60,70,88,101,116
14,27,31,55,61,73,87,103
27,39,51,65,77,91,103,121,149
27,41,55,57,72,85,99,114
27,41,55,59,83,95,109,114,155
27,41,43,71,85,109,123,140,1
65,179,194,210,250,253
27,41,43,57,71,95,111,123,126
CH3
O
N
4- isothiocyanate - 1- butene
Isothiocyanatocyclopropane
N
2-phenylacetonitrile
N
S
O
Isothiocyanatomethyl benzene
CH3
H3C
perhydrofarnesylacetone
O
H3C
(6,10,14-trimethyl-2-pentadecanone)
Nonanal
ipr
H3C
OH
HO
OH
1,2- Pentanediol
3,7,15- tetramethylhexa dec-2-en-1-ol
102
Curr. Res. J. Biol. Sci., 3(2): 100-103, 2011
CH3
H3C
CH3
O
H3C
CH3
CH3
p - menthan - 3 - one
Cymene
Fig. 3: Structure of some compounds of the essential oil from M. phillaeana
The analysis revealed that M. phillaeana oil
contained 4 sulfur-containing compounds (88.50%), 1
nitrile (2.18%), 4 aldehydes (2.77%), monoterpene
hydrocarbons (2.77%) and oxygenated hydrocarbons
(0.69%). Many Brassicaceae plant species contain
glucosinolates which are precursors of many volatile
compounds, in particular nitriles and iso thiocyanates.
Isothiocyanates, which are strongly odorous and pungent
compounds, are formed by the action of the enzyme
thioglucoside glucohydrolase (myrosinase) on the
glucosinolate when the plant tissue is disrupted . Nitriles
are formed by thermic degradation of glucosinolates.
There are strong relation between plant-insect interactions
on oviposition regulation, multitrophic interactions
involving feeding and host selection behaviour of
parasitoids and predators of herbivores on brassicaceae
species (All et al., 2000; Fahey et al., 2001;
Ahuja et al., 2009).
REFERENCES
Adams, R.P., 2001. Identification of essential oil
components by Gas Chromatography/Mass
Spectrometry. Allured Publishing Corp., Illinois,
USA.
Ahuja I., J. Rohloff and A.M. Bones, 2009. Defence
mechanism s of Brassicaceae: Implications for plantinsect interactions and potential for integrated pest
management. A Review. Agron. Sustain. Dev., 10:
1051.
All, A.A., H.A. Hassanean, M.H. Mohammed,
M.S. Kamel and E.S. Khayat, 2000. Chemical and
Biological studies of Sinapsis arvensis growing in
Egypt. Bull. Pharm. Sci., 23: 99-109.
Andrews, F.W., 1950. The Flowering Plants of the AngloEgyptian Sudan. T. Buncle and Co Ltd., Arbroath,
Scotland, 1: 60.
British Pharmacopoea (BP), 1993. HM Stationery Office.
Vol. 2, London A-154.
Burham, B.O., 2008. Chemical constituents of selected
Sudanese medicinal and aromatic plants.
M.Sc. Thesis, Sudan Academy of Sciences, SAS.
El-Kamali, H.H. and A.E. Ahmed, 2006. Antibacterial
properties of Euphorbia hirta and Morettia
phillaeana aerial parts. B.Sc. Thesis, (Botany),
Omdurman Islamic University.
Fahey, J.W., A.T. Zalcmann and P. Talalay, 2001. The
chemical diversity and distribution of glucosinolates
and isothiocyanates among plants. Phytochemistry,
56: 5-51.
CONCLUSION
Analysis of M. phillaeana oil in this study is an
attempt to gain a better understanding of the secondary
metabolite profile of this important valuable plant species.
Compounds like isothiocyanates, glucosinolates and
nitriles found in the plant oil and their breakdown
products may are beneficial in hold great prospects for the
future with respect to an integrated pest management.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We thank Department of Chemistry, Ministry of
Science and Technology, Central Laboratory, Khartoum,
Sudan, for the GC/MS facilities.
103