Essential Oil Composition of Aerial Parts of Hypericum silenoides Juss. and Hypericum philonotis Cham. & Schlecht. Growing in Central Mexico § Leticia García-de la Cruz 1 , Sergio Caballero-Caballero 1 , Sergio Zamudio 2 , Georgina Duarte-Lisci 1 and Andrés Navarrete 1 * 1 Facultad de Química, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria Coyoacán 04510, México D.F., Mexico 2 Instituto de Ecología, Centro Regional del Bajío Avenida Lázaro Cárdenas 253 Pátzcuaro, Michoacán de Ocampo, Mexico Abstract: The essential oils obtained by hydrodistillation of fresh aerial parts of Hypericum silenoides Juss. and Hypericum philonotis Cham. & Schlecht. (Guttiferae), were analyzed by CG and GC-MS. In the former, the major volatiles resulted n-nonane (31.9 %), α-pinene (16.1 %) and n-decanal (15.2 %), followed by 1-tridecanol (11.6 %) and n-dodecanal (10.5 %), while in the latter the major compounds were 2-methyl- octane (52.7 %), n-nonane (35.9 %), β-pinene (3.5 %) and 3-methyl-nonane (2.3 %), respectively. Key words: Hypericum silenoides; Hypericum philonotis; Guttiferae; Central México; essential oils; GC-MS; 2-methyl-octane; n-nonane. § Taken in part of Ph.D. work of Leticia García-de la Cruz. Introduction The genus Hypericum belongs to the Guttiferae family and comprises 460 species of herbs, shrubs and trees over the world 1 . Twelve species of the genus Hypericum are know to be present in Mexico (H. denticulatum, H. fastigiatum, H. formosum, H. galinum, H. hypericoides, H. moranense, H. mutilum, H. paniculatum, H. pauciflorum, H. philonotis, H. silenoides and H. simulans) 2 . Of these 12 species of Hypericum, H. silenoides is the most abundant and frequently used species in the Mexican folk medicine for the reduction of weight 3 . Its popular name is “tlanchalagua”. The common name for H. philonotis is “vinagrillo” and there are no reports describing its use in traditional medicine 2 . The essential oils of Hypericum species have been extensively examined by GC and GC-MS 4,5,6 . However, there are no reports published on the analyzes of essential oils of H. silenoides and H. philonotis. Thus, the aim of the present study was examined the chemical composition of essential oils isolated from the aerial parts of H. silenoides and H. philonotis by GC-MS. Material and methods Plant material The fresh aerial parts of H. silenoides (A) were purchased at Sonora Market in Mexico City, at their flowering stage. A voucher specimen (No. 15542) was deposited in the Herbarium of the Mexican Social Security Institute in Mexico City. Plant identification was confirmed by A. Aguilar. The aerial parts of the plants were collected *Corresponding author (Andrés Navarrete) E-mail: < anavarrt@unam.mx > © 2013, Har Krishan Bhalla & Sons ISSN Print: 0972-060X ISSN Online: 0976-5026 Received 22 November 2012; accepted in revised form 20 March 2013 TEOP 16 (4) 2013 pp 456 - 460 456 Downloaded by [UNAM Ciudad Universitaria] at 06:59 28 October 2013