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Acorus calamus L. (Araceae), is a semi aquatic perennial herb extensively distributed in western Himalaya. To explore the variability in volatile constituents of rhizome essential oils of A. calamus growing wild in foot and mid hills of Uttarakhand, India; twenty one populations were collected during spring season from an altitude of 215 m to 1827 m. The essential oil yield was found to vary from 0.68% to 5.80% in the different populations of A. calamus. GC-FID and GC-MS analysis of oil samples resulted in identification of forty constituents comprising 94.0-99.9% of oil compositions. Phenyl propanoids (81.9-96.9%) represented by β-asarone (69.8-95.6%), α-asarone (0.1-4.7%), (Z)-methyl isoeugenol (<0.1-4.4%), (E)-isoeugenol acetate (0.0-3.7%), (E)-methyl isoeugenol (0.1-2.9%) and ?-asarone (<0.1-1.6%) constitute the major fraction of essential oil composition. Other major constituents identified were a-selinene (0.1-7.2%), humulene epoxide II (<0.1-3.5%), p-cymene (<0.1-1.9%) and a-bisabolol (0.0-1.6%). Comparative results and subsequent statistical analysis based on euclidean multidimensional distance scaling showed considerable variations in rhizome essential oils composition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thymus serpyllum L. grown in Kumaon region of Western Himalaya was investigated for essential oil content and composition in different seasons. The oils of fresh samples were obtained by hydro distillation. The yield of essential oil (% v/w) during different seasons varied from 0.07 to 0.28% with the highest in summer season, at vegetative stage. The oils were analyzed by GC and GC-MS. Major components of all the samples were thymol (19.4-60.1%), γ-terpinene (0.3-13.8%) and p-cymene (3.5-10.4%). The results clearly indicated that season has significant effect on quality and quantity of thyme oil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]