RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Cordia boissieri flowers yielded, on hydrodistillation, 0.21 v/ w of colourless to pale amber
oil with fragrant spicy-scented odor (calculated on dry weight basis) and it was readily
soluble in 70% ethanol. The results obtained by GC and GC/MS analyses of the oil are shown
in (tables 1, 2) according to their elution order on the HP-5MS column. Forty-two volatile
compounds were identified representing 97.7 % of the essential oil. The essential oil was
composed mainly of sesquiterpenes (78.6%), of which (-)-spathulenol (19.1%) and (E)
caryophyllene (16.2%) made up 35.3% of the essential oil. Unoxygenated compounds were
found dominant, being (53.7%) while oxygenated compounds were 44.0%. Monoterpenes
and non-terpenoids are minors (6.6% and 12.5% respectively). To the best of the author's
knowledge, this is the first report on the chemical composition of the essential oil from C.
boissieri.