Abstract:

The chemical constituents of Chinese eaglewood wood, the wood containing resin of Aquilaria sinensis (Lour.) Gilg were analyzed by using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) coupled with dynamic headspace sampling (DHS). There were totally 54 compounds found in the Chinese eaglewood wood, in which, the main constituents are 25 sorts of terpene (sesquiterpene mostly) , 7 sorts of aromatic compound, 8 sorts of aldoketones, 6 sorts of ordinary fatty acid ester, and 8 sorts of small amount of cycloalkane and heterocyclic compounds. Especially, it was the first finding of 16 constituents including α-muurolene, β-humulene, bicyclosesquiphellandrene, α-cubebene, β-myrcene, naphthalene-1,2,3,4,4a,5,6,8-octahydro-7-methyl-4-methylene-1-(1-methylethyl) and 1(2H)-naphthalenone-octahydro-4a-methyl etc. The results showed that this GC-MS coupled with DHS has a relatively high sensitivity and pertinence, and can be used for identifying the quality of Chinese eaglewood wood.

Key words: Chinese eaglewood wood, volatile constituents, DHS, GC-MS