Leaf Essential Oil Composition of Kyllinga brevifolia Rottb. from Nepal Prajwal Paudel 1 , Prabodh Satyal 1 , Ganesh Khadka 2 and William N. Setzer 1 * 1 Department of Chemistry, University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, AL 35899, USA 2 Department of Chemistry, Tribhuvan University MMMC campus, Biratnagar, Nepal Abstract: The essential oil from the leaf of Kyllinga brevifolia Rottb., collected from Biratnagar, Nepal, was obtained by hydrodistillation and analyzed by GC-MS. A total of 22 compounds were identified in the oil accounting for 96.1 % of the oil composition. The majority of the essential oil was identified to be α- cadinol (40.3 %), τ-muurolol (19.5 %), and germacrene D-4-ol (12.5 %). The oil also contained smaller amounts of δ-cadinene (2.9 %), and germacrene D (4.0 %). Reports on the essential oil composition of K. brevifolia from Nepal were compared with a sample from Brazil, which showed that 13-epi-manoyl oxide (26.1 %) and manoyl oxide derivatives constituted the majority of composition with α-cadinol comprising only 0.4 %. However germacrene D was found in similar percentages between Nepal and Brazil samples (4.0 % and 4.2 %, respectively). Key words: Kyllinga brevifolia, α-cadinol, essential oil composition, green sedge. Introduction Kyllinga brevifolia Rottb. is one of the 5500 species of plants that belongs to the Cyperaceae family, colloquially known as sedges 1 . Morphologically, plants in the Cyperaceae family tend to have unjointed, triangular stems and tristichous leaves 1 . The genus Kyllinga is made up of short rhizomatous perennials or cespitose annuals with 40-45 different species dispersed globally around tropical, subtropical, and warm temperature regions 2 . Although this particular species, K. brevifolia, has been most commonly treated as a perennial weed, research into its medi- cinal properties, source of perfume substances, and feed usage has also been explored 3 . As part of our research effort to characterize relatively unexplored aromatic plant species from Nepal in search of medicinal and therapeutic effects, we have examined the leaf essential oil of K. brevifolia. To our knowledge this is the first report of the essential oil of K. brevifolia growing wild in the Indian subcontinent. Experimental Plant Material The leaves of K. brevifolia were collected from the city of Biratnagar (26°28’N 87°16’E, 72 m above sea level) in Morang district in Koshi Zone in Nepal on 16 May 2011. The plant was identi- fied by Tilak Gautam, and a voucher specimen has been deposited in the herbarium of the Tribhuvan University, Post-Graduate Campus, Botany Department, Biratnagar. The fresh leaf sample (110 g) was crushed and then hydro- distilled using a Clevenger type apparatus for 4 h to give clear but pale essential oil, which was Journal of Essential Oil Bearing Plants ISSN Print: 0972-060X Online: 0976-5026 www.jeobp.com *Corresponding author (William N. Setzer) E-mail: < wsetzer@chemistry.uah.edu > © 2012, Har Krishan Bhalla & Sons Jeobp 15 (5) 2012 pp 854 - 857 854 Received 09 October 2011; accepted in revised form 14 March 2012