Headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) coupled with gas chromatography and ion-trapmass spectrometry has
been used to identify
biogenic volatile organic compounds present in theheadspace of chopped leaves of
Eucalyptus (
E.)
dunnii,
E. citriodora, and
E. saligna. A simple HS-SPME method entailing 30 min of extraction at 30
![](/images/entities/deg.gif)
C was developed for this purpose. Thirtycompounds were identified in the headspace of 60 juvenile chopped
Eucalyptus leaves, and another30 were tentatively identified. The presence of compounds such as (
E)-4,8-dimethyl-1,3,7-nonatriene(DMNT), (
E,
E)-4,8,12-trimethyl-1,3,7,11-tridecatetraene (TMNT), (
E,
E)-
![](/images/gifchars/alpha.gif)
-farnesene, (
E,
E,
E)-3,7,11,15-tetramethyl-1,3,6,10,14-hexadecapentaene (TMHP),
beta2.gif" BORDER=0 ALIGN="middle">-caryophyllene,
![](/images/gifchars/alpha.gif)
-humulene, germacrene D,and
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be
bene in the headspace of the leaves
but not in the essential oils from the same
Eucalyptustrees and information a
bout the infochemical roles of some of these compounds in other living plantsystems suggest they might play a
bioactive role in
Eucalyptus leaves.Keywords: Solid-phase microextraction (SPME);
Eucalyptus dunnii;
Eucalyptus citriodora;
Eucalyptussaligna;
biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC)