Chemical Composition of the Essential Oil Hydrodistilled from Serbian Taxus baccata L.

Hydrodistillation of fresh needles and branches of Torus baccata L. (Gymnospermae, Taxaceae) yielded 0.02% (w/w) of the essential oil. GC and GC/MS analyses enabled the identification of 62 constituents that accounted for 92.2% of the total oil. The oil was found to mainly consist of components belonging to one of the following classes: terpenoids (28.2%), "green leaf" volatiles (12.0%), carotenoid derived compounds (18.4%) and n-alkanes (18.4%). The major contributors were hexahydrofarnesyl acetone (18.3%), myrtenol (18.3%), (Z)-3-hexenol (6.0%), 3-methyl-2-butenoic acid (5.9%) and tricosane (5.5%). The terpenoid fraction was completely made up of monoterpenoids and diterpenoids (mostly oxygenated derivatives), but, contrary to the oils isolated from other Taxus taxa, no sesquiterpenoids were identified.