Chemical composition and antioxidant activity of essential oil of pine cones of pinus armandii from the Southwest region of China

The essential oil of an endemic species, Pinus armandii, gathered from China, was extracted by hydrodistillation and solid phase micro-extraction (SPME). The oils have been studied by GC and GCMS. A total of 57 compounds have been identified in the pine cone oil extracted by hydrodistillation, the principal components being α-pinene (20.92%) and D-limonene (15.78%), β-pinene (4.91%) and transpinocarveol (4.76%), while the oil extracted by SPME showed α-pinene (41.59%), D-limonene (17.8%), β- caryophllene (11.02%) and β-pinene (7.54%) as the principal components. SPME extracts indicated that β-pinene and β-caryophllene were in greater concentration in the head space vapours than in the oil. The antioxidant activity of the oils from P. armandii was evaluated using the DPPH. This is the first report describing the essential oil composition and antioxidant activity of this species.