Chemical Composition of Essential Oils from Ripe and Unripe Fruits of Piper amalago L. var. medium (Jacq.) Yunck and Piper hispidum Sw.

The chemical composition of essential oils from unripe and ripe fruits of Piper amalago L. var. medium (Jacq.) Yunck and Piper hispidum Sw. was examined using GC/MS analysis. The analysis of oils from P. amalago revealed a predominance of oxygenated sesquiterpenes and 65 compounds were identified; their main constituents are: (E)-nerolidol (14.2% and 19.9%), germacrene-D-4-ol (10.3% and 12.7%), alpha-cadinol (11.1% and 8.2%) in 99.6% and 98.7% of the compounds for unripe and ripe fruits, respectively. Piper hispidum revealed a predominance of sesquiterpene hydrocarbons, from which we identified 53 compounds including: alpha-copaene (28.7% and 36.2%), alpha-pinene (13.9% and 7.1%), beta-pinene (13.3% and 7.5%), and (E)-nerolidol (2.9% and 7.0%) which represented 97.8% and 98.1% of the compound constituents for unripe and ripe fruits, respectively. The essential oils of fruits of P amalago and P hispidum are reported for the first time.