Composition of the essential oil of Chaerophyllum aromaticum (Apiaceae) growing wild in Austria.

The composition of the essential oil from the leaves and fruits of Chaerophyllum aromaticum L. collected in two consecutive years has been studied. The leaf oil was domintaed by gamma-terpinene, followed by p-cymenene and p-cymene, as well as germacrene D. The fruit oil had gamma-terpinene and beta-phellandrene as main compounds, and beta-pinene, alpha-pinene and 2,6-dimethyl-1,3,5,7-octatetraene as further major constituents. The relative amounts of the individual compounds varied with the sampling year. Additionally, leaf and fruit samples have been analyzed by SPME. In these volatile fractions gamma-terpinene and germacrene D dominated in the leaves and germacrene D, beta-phellandrene and gamma-terpinene in the fruits.