Identification of Aroma-active Compounds in Essential Oil from Uncaria Hook by Gas Chromatography- Mass Spectrometry and Gas Chromatography-Olfactometry.

The chemical composition of essential oil extracted from Uncaria Hook ("Chotoko" in Japanese), the branch with curved hook of the herbal medicine Uncaria rhynchophylla has been investigated by GC and GC-MS analyses. Eighty-four compounds, representing 90.8% of the total content was identified in oil obtained from Uncaria Hook. The main components i were (E)-cinnamaldehyde (13.4%), α-copaene (8.0%), methyl eugenol (6.8%), δ-cadinene (5.3%), and curcumene (3.6%). The important key aroma-active compounds in the oil were detected by gas chromatography-olfactometry (GC-O) and aroma extract dilution analysis (AEDA), using the flavor dilution (FD) factor to express the odor potency of each compounds. Furthermore, the odor activity value (OAV) has been used as a measure of the relative contribution of each compound to the aroma of the Uncaria Hook oil. The GC-O and AEDA results showed that α-copaene (FD = 4, OAV = 4376), (E)-linalool oxide (FD = 64, OAV = 9.1), and methyl eugenol (FD = 64, OAV = 29) contributed to the woody and spicy odor of Uncaria Hook oil, whereas furfural (FD = 8, OAV = 4808) contributed to its sweet odor. These results warrant further investigations of the application of essential oil from Uncaria Hook in the phytochemical and medicinal fields.