Secretory elements of needles and berries of Juniperus communis L. ssp. communis and its volatile constituents

Abstract

The structure of the secretory elements and the essential oils of the needles and berries of Juniperus communis L. ssp. communis growing in north Iran were studied. The needles, which contain ducts and transfusion tissue, act as conduction structures, and the berries containing elongate tubercles which act as reservoirs of volatile oils. The essential oils, isolated by hydrodistillation, were analysed by GC-MS. The oil contained 41 and 27 components in the needles and berries, respectively. The needle oil consisted mainly of sabinene (40.7%), α-pinene (12.5%) and terpinen-4-ol (12.3%) and the berry oil included sabinene (36.8%), α-pinene (20%), limonene (10.6%), germacrene D (8.2%) and myrcene (4.8%) as the main components. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.