Volatile composition of Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don using solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry

A total of 88 volatile and semi-volatile components were formally or tentatively identified in flowers, leaves and stems of Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don (cv. Little Bright Eye), by headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) and by dichloromethane extraction, combined with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). These include some diterpenic compounds (manool and manoyl oxides), a sesquiterpen (α-bisabolol), and some pyridine, pyrazine, indol and carotenoid derivatives. Applying multivariate analysis (principal component analysis and agglomerative hierarchic cluster analysis) to the HS-SPME–GC–MS data, it was possible to characterize each part of the vegetal material using a relative small number of compounds. Hence, flowers were richer in terpenic molecules (including limonene), α-bisabolol, methyljasmonate, cis-jasmone, 2-phenylethanol, phenylacetaldehyde, trans-2-octenal, benzylic alcohol and 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine. Leaves can be characterized by the methyl and propyl esters of fatty acids, mono- and disaturated, trans-phytol, carotenoid derivative compounds, hydrofarnesylacetone, methylanthranilate, manool and epi-manool oxide, while stems have high levels of volatile aldehydes, such as hexanal, octanal, cis-2-nonenal, cis-2-decenal, cis, trans-2,6-nonadienal, trans, trans-2,4-decadienal andcis, trans-2,4-decadienal. Dichloromethane extraction allowed also the identification of some alkaloid-like compounds that were not detected by HS-SPME.