Characterization of laurel fruit oil from Madeira Island, Portugal

Abstract

The fixed oil extracted from Laurus spp. fruit from Madeira Island, Portugal, is used in local traditional medicine for a wide variety of health complaints. Physical properties, density and refractive index, as well as the TAG FA composition, sterols, and waxes were determined. The oil was found to have an unusually high content of volatiles (ca. 10%), with trans-ocimene and germacrene D predominating. Oleic (30%) and linoleic (20%) acids were the main unsaturated FA, whereas lauric (18%) and palmitic (up to 22.5%) acids were the main saturated FA in the neutral lipid fraction. The oil had a sterol content on the same order as olive oil, with β-sitosterol (84%) predominating. Two sesquiterpene lactones, dehydrocostuslactone and costunolide, accounted for 5% of the overall composition. Madeira laurel oil is not currently used as an edible oil because of its very strong flavor. Its claimed medicinal properties have not yet been validated, and this is the first report on the characterization of the commercial product.Paper no. J11122 in JAOCS 82, 863-868 (December 2005). FIG. 1.Bands a (trans-ocimene) and b (lactones) in the total oil (line 2) are absent in the spectrum of the lipidic fraction (line 1).

Extraction and Separation of Volatile and Fixed Oils from Berries of Laurus nobilis L. by Supercritical CO2

“…The most represented fatty acids of fixed oil from whole berry were 12:0 (27.6%), 18:1 n-9 (27.1%), 18:2 n-6 (21.4%), and 16:0 (17.1%). These results were within the range of fatty acids composition previously reported in literature for L. nobilis fat [ 13 , 14 ]. However the amounts of fatty acids greatly differed from those reported for daphne seed oil obtained by supercritical CO 2 extraction [ 15 ].…”

“…Similar results were obtained by Kilic et al for the essential oil of Turkish bay: the volatile compounds in bay fruits mainly consisted of 1,8-cineole (9.5%) and ( E )-β-ocimene (22.1%), which is not present in leaves [ 2 ]. Also, Castilho et al , found ( E )-β-ocimene and germacrene D predominating in the essential oil extracted from fruits of Portuguese L. nobilis [ 13 ]. On the other hand, Hafizoglu et al studied the composition of L. nobilis from Turkey and they reported 4-terpineol to be the main component in the fruit essential oil [ 4 ].…”

Quantitative analysis of costunolide and dehydrocostuslactone in rat plasma by ultraperformance liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization–mass spectrometry

“…Pharmacokinetic studies are very important to deeply elucidate the pharmaceutical action mechanism. Several methods have been reported on the quantification of costunolide and dehydrocostus in plant extracts, based on high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) separation with ultraviolet (UV) detection (Wang et al ., 2000; Castilho et al ., 2005), 13 C‐NMR spectroscope detection (Ferrari et al ., 2005), thin‐layer chromatography (Vijayakannan et al ., 2006) and high‐speed counter‐current chromatography (Li et al ., 2005). However, there is no literature available for the estimation of costunolide and dehydrocostuslactone in biological matrices.…”

Matrix solid-phase dispersion extraction coupled with HPLC-diode array detection method for the analysis of sesquiterpene lactones in root of Saussurea lappa C.B.Clarke

“…For analyses of costunolide and dehydrocostuslactone in plants or in biological matrices, many methods have been established using HPLC-UV [24][25][26], TLC-densitometry [27], 13 C-NMR spectroscope detection [28], high-speed counter-current chromatography [29] and HPLC-MS [30]. Different sample preparation methods have also been applied to extract costunolide and dehydrocostuslactone from the roots of Saussurea lappa C.B.Clarke.…”