Natural Product Research

Formerly Natural Product Letters

ISSN: 1478-6419 (Print) 1478-6427 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/gnpl20

Compositional variation in the leaf, mace, kernel,

and seed essential oil of nutmeg (Myristica fragrans
Houtt.) from the Western Ghats, India

Kaliyaperumal Ashokkumar, Sampathrajan Vellaikumar, Murugan

Muthusamy, M. K. Dhanya & Shaji Aiswarya

To cite this article: Kaliyaperumal Ashokkumar, Sampathrajan Vellaikumar, Murugan Muthusamy,

M. K. Dhanya & Shaji Aiswarya (2020): Compositional variation in the leaf, mace, kernel, and seed
essential oil of nutmeg (Myristica�fragrans Houtt.) from the Western Ghats, India, Natural Product
Research, DOI: 10.1080/14786419.2020.1771713

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/14786419.2020.1771713

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Published online: 09 Jun 2020.

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NATURAL PRODUCT RESEARCH
https://doi.org/10.1080/14786419.2020.1771713

SHORT COMMUNICATION

Compositional variation in the leaf, mace, kernel, and

seed essential oil of nutmeg (Myristica fragrans Houtt.)
from the Western Ghats, India
Kaliyaperumal Ashokkumara, Sampathrajan Vellaikumarb, Murugan Muthusamya,
M. K. Dhanyaa and Shaji Aiswaryaa
a
Cardamom Research Station, Kerala Agricultural University, Idukki, Kerala, India; bAgricultural
College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

The essential oil (EO) from leaf, mace, kernel, and seed of Myristica Received 12 April 2020
fragrans Houtt. growing in the Western Ghats, India was investi- Accepted 3 May 2020
gated for the first time. The EO was extracted by hydrodistillation
and analysed by GC-MS. The results revealed that yields of EO KEYWORDS
were 3.16%, 8.10%, 6.24%, and 5.21% for leaf, mace, kernel, and Nutmeg; essential oil;
sabinene; a-pinene;
seed, respectively. The main fractions were found to be monoter- eugenol; myristicin;
penes (53.77%–94.82%), phenylpropenes (1.96%–28.61%), and ses- caryophyllene
quiterpenes (1.21%–16.76%) and for all the four parts. The main
constituents of leaf were sabinene (17.17%), eugenol (16.60%),
myristicin (9.12%), caryophyllene (8.82%), and b-myrcene (4.74%).
Sabinene (38.37%), a-pinene (8.16%), b-pinene (7.61%), D-limon-
ene (7.07%), and 3-carene (5.05%) were predominant constituents
of mace. The major constituents of kernel and seed were sabi-
nene, a-pinene, b-pinene, and D-limonene. The major constituents
of leaf, mace, kernel and seed of nutmeg can be utilised in the
food, perfumery, aroma and pharmaceutical industries.

1. Introduction
Nutmeg (Myristica fragrans Houtt.), family Myristicaceae is an evergreen tree indigen-
ous to the Maluku Islands of Indonesia, is extensively distributed to Grenada, India,
Mauritius, Sri Lanka, South Africa, and USA (Francis et al. 2019). In traditional Indian

CONTACT Kaliyaperumal Ashokkumar biotech.ashok@gmail.com

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/14786419.2020.1771713.
ß 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 K. ASHOKKUMAR ET AL.

medicine, nutmeg has been used to treat indigestion, diarrhoea, parasites, plague,
rheumatism paralysis, and other illness (Ziyatdinova et al. 2016). Several scientific
reports say that nutmeg has potential antioxidant, antibacterial, antifungal, anti-inflam-
matory, antiulcerogenic, anticancer, aphrodisiac, and several other activities (Miyazawa
et al. 1996a; Tajuddin et al., 2003; Gupta et al. 2013; Das et al. 2018; Hiranrat and
Hiranrat 2019). The extraction methods for essential oil (EO) are hydrodistillation,
steam distillation, supercritical fluid extraction, microwave, and ultrasound-assisted
methods (Azwanida, 2015; Ashokkumar et al. 2020). Among these methods, hydrodis-
tillation is most commonly used due to low-cost of Clevenger apparatus and solvent
as water. The EO yield of nutmeg varied between 5% and 15% (Barceloux, 2009). M.
fragrans EO has chiefly monoterpenes (sabinene, b-pinene, b-terpineol, p-menth-8-en-
1-ol, and terpinen-4-ol), phynelypropene (eugenol, methyl eugenol, myristicin), sesqui-
terpenes (germacrene D, b-bergamotene) and other constituents (Miyazawa et al.
1996b; Atta-ur-Rahman et al. 2000; Dupuy et al. 2013; Francis et al. 2014). Several stud-
ies have been carried out on the EOs of the plant from various parts of the world
(Atta-ur-Rahman et al. 2000; Ogunwande et al. 2003; Dupuy et al. 2013). As part of
continuing interest and our knowledge, this study was the first report of EO composi-
tions from leaf, mace, kernel, and the seed of nutmeg growing from Western Ghats,
India. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the EO yield and its compositions from
four different parts or tissues of M. fragrans.

2. Results and discussion

2.1. EO extraction
The present study four different parts of M. fragrans used for the determination of EO
yield using hydrodistillation method. An average yield of three separate analyses was
3.16%, 8.10%, 6.24%, and 5.21% (vol/wt) in leaf, mace, kernel, and seed accordingly
(Table S1). The oil yield of kernel (6.24%) was higher than the Nigeria grown nutmeg
kernel (1.46%), (Ogunwande et al. 2003). However, seed oil yield (5.21%) was lower
that grown in Brazil (Valente et al. 2014). The higher and lower level of oil content
observed might be due to change in soil type, location, origin, extraction methods
and environmental conditions (Ashokkumar et al. 2019).

2.2. GC-MS analysis

The obtained oils were analysed by GC-MS, which resulted in the identification of 33
total compounds, comprising 99.67%–99.97% of all the parts of M. fragrans
(Supplementary Table S1). The leaf oil was characterised by high concentration of
monoterpene hydrocarbons (48.16%) followed by oxygenated phenylpropenes
(28.61%), oxygenated monoterpenes (21.65%) and sesquiterpene hydrocarbons
(16.76%). The main monoterpenes were sabinene (17.17%), b-pinene (6.44%), D-limon-
ene (5.03%) and b-myrcene (4.74%). In the phenylpropene group, represented primar-
ily dominated by eugenol (16.60%) and myristicin (9.12%). The main sesquiterpene
constituents of leaf oils were caryophyllene (8.82%) and germacrene D (2.95%). Mace
EO had 24 constituents; of them, eleven were monoterpene hydrocarbons, which
 NATURAL PRODUCT RESEARCH 3

comprise 81.34% of total concentration. Among them, sabinene (38.37%) were pre-
dominant followed by a-pinene, b-pinene, b-myrcene, 3-carene, 4-carene, b-phellan-
drene, and D-limonene. Among the phenylpropene (12.43%), the major constituents
were myristicin (5.90%), and safrole (3.90%). The EO profile of the leaf, mace, kernel
and seed of M. fragrans and molecular structures of identified major constituents were
presented in Supplementary Figures S1 and S2 (available online only), respectively.
Kernel (without shell) EO had 24 constituents; of them, twelve were monoterpene
hydrocarbons, which comprised 89.41% of total concentration. Among them, sabinene,
a-pinene, b-pinene, D-limonene, and b-myrcene and the corresponding concentration
were 38.04%, 19.22%, 14.91%, 7.52%, and 3.37%. However the concentration was
greater than previously reported 11.8% (sabinene) 4.9% (a-pinene), and 4.6%
(b-pinene) in kernel oil (Atta-ur-Rahman et al. 2000). Moreover, other types of volatiles
oxygenated monoterpenes, sesquiterpene hydrocarbons, oxygenated phenylpropenes
and aromatic hydrocarbons were detected at 4.73%, 2.89%, 1.96%, and 0.72% respect-
ively, of total concentration. In the case of the seed (with shell) oil, twenty-five chem-
ical constituents identified of them, thirteen were monoterpene hydrocarbons and
comprised 84.11% of total concentration. Among them, sabinene (27.65%), a-pinene
(21.78%), b-pinene (18.23%), D-limonene (6.35%), and b-myrcene (2.91%) were pre-
dominant constituents. The earlier reported values of sabinene (25%) and D-limonene
(6.30%) in seed oil corroborate our findings (Valente et al. 2014). Four phenylpropene
constituents were identified, of them, c-asarone (2.27%) were predominant followed
by myristicin, methyl eugenol and safrol. Two sesquiterpene hydrocarbon constituent
germacrene D (0.92%) and a-bergamotene (0.63%) were also identified, of these,
a-bergamotene were accumulated only in the seed EO, which is not detected other
parts of M. fragrans. Additionally, the present study gave wide variation in the chem-
ical composition of EO constituents compared to earlier reports. The EO compositions
differ according to local factors among them were growing condition, harvesting
methods and time, oil extraction method, and storage conditions.

3. Conclusion
A comparative study of the EOs composition from leaf, mace, kernel, and seed of M.
fragrans was carried out for the first time. The chemo-profiling of GC-MS analysis
reveals that there were thirty-three phytochemical constituents that represent approxi-
mately 99.9% for all four EOs. Monoterpene concentration was predominant in EO of
all the four parts. Sabinene, eugenol, caryophyllene and myristicin are major constitu-
ents of leaf EO, while mace oil sabinene and a-pinene were predominant. Both kernel
and seed EOs were predominantly accumulated with sabinene, a-pinene, b-pinene,
and D-limonene. The presence of these biologically active molecules as major constitu-
ents in the EO of four different parts of M. fragrans serves as a new potential source
for monoterpenes, phenylpropene, and sesquiterpenes which can be used in food,
aroma, and pharmaceutical applications.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by authors.
4 K. ASHOKKUMAR ET AL.

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