Variations in the Volatile Compositions of Species.

species have been cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions in Asia, Australia, and South America for culinary as well as medicinal applications. The biological activities of have been attributed to the non-volatile curcuminoids as well as to volatile terpenoids. essential oils have demonstrated a wide variety of pharmacological properties. The objective of this work was to examine the variation in the compositions of rhizome essential oils. In this work, the volatile oils from and were obtained and analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The chemical compositions of and essential oils, including those reported in the literature, were analyzed by hierarchical cluster analysis. In addition, cluster analyses of the chemical compositions of and from the literature were also carried out. volatiles were dominated by α-turmerone, curlone, -turmerone, β-sesquiphellandrene, α-zingiberene, germacrone, terpinolene, -curcumene, and α-phellandrene and showed four distinct chemical clusters. rhizome oil contained 1,8-cineole, curzerenone/-curzerenone, α-copaene, camphor, β-caryophyllene, elemol, germacrone, curzerene, and β-elemene and showed two different chemical types. had three clearly defined clusters, and had three types.