Aromatic Compounds in Essential Oil of Guifei Loquat Flowers

Volatiles in Guifei loquat flowers were extracted by the conventional steam distillation method,and subsequently,separated using GC followed by the structure identification by MS.A total of 56,61and 48 chemicals,constituting 96.27%,94.73%,and 96.08% of the total,respectively,were obtained from three extraction stages in their 1∶1water solutions.Twenty-five of the chemicals were commonly existed in all three extracts.The majority of the volatiles in the first-and second-stage extracts was aldehydes(70.19%and 60.03%,respectively)with benzaldehyde in the greatest amounts(56.01% and 50.22%,respectively).Of the volatiles in the third-stage extract,45.14% were esters and 22.28%alcohols,and the single chemical in the greatest quantity,as much as 20.4%,was l-(+)-ascorbic acid 2,6-dihexadecanoate.The results obtained should be useful for the development of essential oil extraction from loquat flowers.