Volatile constituents of the essential oil of Santolina chamaecyparissus Linn. from the southern hills of India

The composition of the essential oil of the aerial parts of the Santolina c hamaecyparissus L. plants collected from the campus of CIMAP field station Kodaikanal (southern hills) was analyzed by GC and GC/MS. The oil yield obt ained upon hydrodistillation was 1.1% (v/w) on fresh weight basis. The anal ysis of the oil led to the identification of 25 constituents totaling 97.4% of the oil. The identified constituents included monoterpene hydrocarbons (30%) oxygenated monoterpenes (56%), sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (10.6%) and oxygenated sesquiterpene (0.8%). The major constituents of the oil were ar temisia ketone (32%), 1,8-cineole (15.6%) and myreene (14.5%).