Chemical composition of essential oil from female cones of Cupressus arizonica Greene.

The hydrodistilled volatile essential oils extracted from the female cones of Cupressus arizonica Greene that harvested in winter and spring seasons were analysed for their chemical composition by using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Twenty-four and seventeen components were identified, accounting for winter (95.5%) and spring (96.9%) of the total oils volume, respectively. Monoterpenoids (winter 93.7% and spring 95.0%) dominated the identified components in the essential oils, followed by a small portion of sesquiterpenoids (winter 1.8% and spring 1.9%). Monoterpene hydrocarbons (MH) (winter 90.9% and spring 94.9%) were the principal subclasses of components with α-pinene (winter 42% and spring 72%), β-myrcene (winter 18.5% and spring 7.7%), δ-3-carene (winter 11.3% and spring 5.1%), limonene (9.4% for winter), and β-pinene (5.3% for spring) as main constituents. Limonene (9.4%), camphor (0.2%), exo-methylcamphenilol (0.2%), terpinene-4-ol (0.6%), β-citronellol (0.9%), and bornyl acetate (0.3%) were representative of the monoterpene hydrocarbon and oxygen-containing monoterpenoids (OM) in winter essential oil.