2015, Vol. 3, Issue 3, Part A

author(s)
Adalgisa da Silva Alvarez, Maria das Graças Bichara Zoghbi

abstract
Platonia insignis (Clusiaceae), a native tree of Amazon produces fruit largely used in some food. Although extensively research on free fatty acids and volatiles of the pulp, shell and seeds, no paper was encountered concerning volatiles from the leaves of this species. Essential-oil samples were extracted from fifteen individual plants of Platonia insignis from representative wild populations from three municipalities in the Northeastern Pará, Brazil, and investigated by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and gas chromatography/flame ionization detector (GC/FID). The results of the oil compositions were processed by Hierarchical Component Analysis (HCA) allowing establishment of two groups of essential oils differentiated by the content of β-caryophyllene (Cluster I), and α-selinene/β-selinene (Cluster II). HCA also distinguished the oils taken from the Mosqueiro Island from the oils from Bragança and Santo Antonio do Tauá during the dry and rainy Amazonian seasons.