A study on the composition of commercial Vetiveria zizanioides oils from different geographical origins

This work reports the chemical composition of essential oils of Vetiveria zizanioides (L.) Nash from nine countries: Brazil, China, Haiti, India, Java, Madagascar, Mexico, Reunion and Salvador. Analyses were performed using GC/MS, and about 110 constituents were identified in oils, mainly sesquiterpenes. The characteristic constituents were beta-vetispirene (1.6-4.5%), khusimol (3.4-13.7%), vetiselinenol (1.3-7.8%) and alpha-vetivone (2.5-6.3%). No meaningful differences were observed comparing the composition of nine geographical origins. Hierarchical clustering and principal component analysis (PCA) of the compositional data of the oil samples confirm the relative homogeneity of V zizanioides by the content of major constituents (khusimol, beta-vetivenene and beta-vetispirene).