Composition of the essential oils of Kaempferia rotunda L. and Kaempferia angustifolia Roscoe rhizomes from Indonesia

The volatile constituents of rhizomes (main rhizome, lateral parts) of two medicinally used Indonesian plants of the family Zingiberaceae, Kaempferia rotunda L. and K. angustifolia Roscoe, were investigated by GC and GC–MS (EI) analysis. A total of 75 compounds were identified. The most abundant constituents were benzyl benzoate (69.7%, 20.2%), n‐pentadecane (22.9%, 53.8%) and camphene (1.0%, 6.2%) in K. rotunda, and n‐pentadecane (17.8%, 5.0%), camphene (9.1%, 12.4%), camphor (6.2%, 5.7%) and bornyl formate (3.7%, 16.3%) in K. angustifolia. Although both species are known in Java under the same local name (kunci pepet) and probably will be interexchanged, there are some marked phytochemical differences. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.