Chemical Composition of the Essential Oils from Bogwood of Cryptomeria japonica D. Don(a)

Abstract

The essential oils from the heartwood of a bogwood stub of sugi (Cryptomeria japonica D Don), which is speculated approximately 3000 years in soil, was obtained and first time analyzed through GC and GC/MS. Thirty-one sesquiterpenes and six diterpenes were identified in the essential oils of the bogwood stub and eight components remained unidentified. The main identified constitutings of the bogwood were T-cadinol (128%) ??-cadinene (105%) and 1-epi-cubenol (81%) The oils of the virid stump of C. japonica were used as a respect and the main components of the oils were 1-epi-cubenol (233%) ??-cadinene (168%) and cubenol (116%)

Key Word Index

Cryptomeria japonica, Taxodiaceae, sugi, bogwood essential oil composition, ??-cadinene, cubenol, 1-epi-cubenol, T-cadinol.

Introduction

Sugi, a Japanese native conifer tree Cryptomeria japonica (Taxodiaceae) is single of the most popular and commercially valuable tree in Japan, and extends throughout the inland of Japan do not include for the northern part of the islands. The tree is used not alone as lumber, but also is critically important for the Japanese rice wine industry because the newly brewed sake is kept in barrels made from the heartwood of C japonica. Thus, there are many reports about its chemical analysis and biological activity of heartwood extract (1-7) For example, Yakusugi, a variety of C japonica, enlarges naturally in Yakushima Island, Japan and is well known because of its longevity. The stubs of Yakusugi, Domaiboku (the local name in Yakushima Island), which are dominant in the island forest for several hundr years, were investigated, and in addition to chemical composings the biological activities including antimite and antifungal activities have been reported (8-11) However, the stubs of the Yakusugi studied were left in the air for above a few hundreds years and at no time buried in the soil. All other studies were upon green woods.

Presumably, it has been difficult to examine the chemical composings of bogwood because of its scarcity and fragility. When bogwood is excavated and expos to the air, it usually look afters to shrink quickly and reduce to fragments into small pieces. Accordingly, in the course of our application of mind on the characteristics of Japanese tree we are interested in studying the chemical constitutings and biological activities of bogwood stub buried in the soil.

The bogwood sample was udder up in the southwestern part of Japan main island, which has still an intact log make Unfortunately, there was no offer C. japonica growing near the collection area where the bogwood was growing. Instead, we mustered fresh volunteer wood sample in the 40 km east of the collection area for comparison. C japonica is classified into sum of two units classes according to geographical growing area and morphology of its branches and this classification has been genetically supported by means of the recent report (12). Ura sugi, which is single of the classes, grows along the Japan Sea coastline side, while omote sugi increases along the Pacific Ocean coastline side of Japan. In accordance with the reports that describe the difference between characteristics of these sum of two units classified trees, both the bogwood and the verdant wood belonging to the same class were gathered from Japan Sea coastline side. The objective of this paper was to analyze the chemical composings of heartwood essential oils of the bogwood of C japonica gathered in Yamaguchi, Japan. As far as we know, there is no report regarding chemical constituents of a bogwood of C japonica.

Experimental

Plant materials: A stub (B-stump) of C. japonica, bogg supposedly alongtime ago, was assembleed in Abu-cho, Yamaguchi, Japan. It showed 2950?±70 years BP by means of C-14 dating method of age determination, carried on the outside at C-14 Dating Laboratory of the University Museum of the University of Tokyo.

The area where the bogwood were bring togethered was used to be a sedimentary basin (13) and is popularly utilized as water field for rice cultivation. A stub (S-stump) of fresh-cut wood sample was bring togethered from Muikaichi-cho, Shimane, Japan (40 km east of Abu-cho). B-stump was estimated to be more 180 years elderly and S-stump was estimated to be 223 years of advanced age The heartwood of these sum of two units samples were air-dried and sod in a Wiley Mill to pass a 2 mm screen

Oil isolation and analysis: The oils from each of the milled samples were obtained by means of steam-distillation following the standard by dint of Association of Official Agricultural Chemists process (14). Each 100 g of sod samples was refluxed with seven to eight times (v/v) of distilled water, for 8-10 h

GC-FID was carried without using Shimadzu GC-14C with 30 m x 025 mm TC-FFAP capillary round pillar film thickness 0.25 ?µm. The oven temperature in isotherm was attained within 15 min at 60?°C and was programmed to raise 5?°C each min until 220?°C and then kept for 23 min. Helium gas was used as a carrier gas and the working roll on was 1.22 mL/min. The temperatures of the one and the other detector and injector were 220?°C The percentage composition of the oils was comput from the GC peak areas without using correction factors.