The volatile constituents of the leaves and flowers of <i>Kigelia africana</i> Benth.

Abstract

Abstract The volatile constituents of the oil from the leaves and flowers of Kigelia africana Benth. from Lagos Nigeria, isolated by hydrodistillation, were analysed by GC and GC‐MS. The leaf oil was found to contain 25 components, while the flower oil contained nine. Both oils were rich in non‐terpenoids; hexadecanoic acid (21.91%, leaf oil; 57.00%, flower oil) was the most abundant in both oils. The other major components were ethyl linoleate (21.73%) and α ‐pinene (12.28%) in leaf oil and terpenolene (8.26%), myristic acid (7.95%) and linalool (6.71%) in the flower oil. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.