Evaluation of climatic factors on the yield and chemical composition of the essential oil of Myrocarpus frondosus.

The species Myrocarpus frondosus is native to southern Brazil, and it is known as cabreúva. It is a large tree, and its wood is used as a reservoir for distilled spirits, especially Cachaça. In this pioneering work, the essential oil was extracted monthly from the leaves of M. frondosus, for a period of 1 year. The essential oil was extracted by using hydrodistillation and the determination of the chemical composition of essential oil was performed by using the chromatographic techniques GC-FID and GC-MS. Thirty-three compounds were identified in the essential oil and bicyclogermacrene was the major compound. Through multivariate analysis, it was determined that ß-caryophyllene, limonene and terpinen-4-ol were directly proportional to climatic factors. The yield of the oil was directly proportional to temperature and radiation.