The essential oil of Pittosporum tenuifolium

Abstract

The Pittosporaceae is one of the smaller plant families and the typical genus Pittosporum includes most of the species, some seventy of which arc distributed in New Zealand, Australia, East Indies and Asia. It has been reported that various species of this genus have aromatic odours due to the essential oils they contain, bur apparently there is published information concerning only four of them, P. resiniferum,1 P. eugeniodes,2 P. undulatum,3 and P. Pentandrum.4 The essential oils of the first two contain n‐heptane and n‐nonane respectively, the her to the extent of 60%. It seemed of interest to ascertain whether the oils of this genus might be divided into two classes, one giving normal plant constituents and the other features by the presence of paraffins and hydrogenated terpenes. To this end, a comparison of the New Zealand species is being undertaken and the oil of P. renuifolium is the second to be chemically examined.