Identification of the major volatile components from different plant organs of Foeniculum vulgare Mill.

Abstract

The various plant organs of fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.) were investigated to identify their volatile components using Dynamic Headspace (Purge trap). They showed slight differences concerning the volatile components both qualitatively and quantitatively. Results revealed that trans-anethole (12.65%) was the major compound in the leaf. The highest compound was α-pinene (28.78%), and trans-anethole (7.90%) was highly detected in the stem. The maximum values were 5.64, 4.59, 1.58, 1.51, and 1.04% for α-pinene, γ- terpinene, β-pinene 1,8-cineol and fenchone, respectively in the flower. However, very little trans-anethole was detected (0.27%) in the flower. From these results, it was suggested that the major components were different depending on the plant organs. However it was demonstrated that the related plant organs like flower-fruit and leaf-stem contained the similar components.