Chemical Composition of Essential Oils of Litsea cubeba Harvested from Its Distribution Areas in China

Litsea cubeba (Lour.) Pers. is a promising industrial crop with fruits rich in essential oils. The chemical composition of essential oils of L. cubeba (EOLC) were determined for fruits harvested from eight regions in China. The overall essential oil content, obtained by hydrodistillation and analyzed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS), ranged from 3.04% to 4.56%. In total, 59 compounds were identified, the dominant components being monoterpenes (94.4–98.4%), represented mainly by neral and geranial (78.7–87.4%). D-limonene was unexpectedly a lesser constituent (0.7–5.3%) in fruits, which differed from previous reports (6.0–14.6%). Several components were only detected in certain regions and compounds such as o-cymene and eremophilene have never before been reported in EOLC. These results demonstrate significant regional variation in the chemical composition of EOLC. This investigation provides important information with regard to the bioactivity, breeding work and industrial applications of L. cubeba.