Seasonality Effect on Essential Oil Yield and Chemical Composition of Four Accessions of Schinus molle L

the objective of this study was to determine the yield and chemical composition of the essential oils of the dry leaves of four accessions of false pepper tree ( Schinus molle L.) collected at four different sites in the city of Volta Redonda, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in four seasons of the year. After hydrodistillation extraction and chemical analysis of the essential oils by GC-FID and GC-MS, bicyclogermacrene and sabinene were found to be the major chemicals in the essential oils obtained during the summer (34.34% and 26.54%), autumn (23.63% and 45.4%) and spring (21.06% and 45.39%), while myrcene and sabinene were the main chemicals found during winter (21.97% and 27.32%) respectively. It was observed that the metabolic profile of Schinus molle has strong influence of seasonality, since this was variable throughout the year.