Essential oil constituents of Melia dubia, a wild relative of Azadirachta indica growing in the Eastern Ghats of Peninsular India

The leaf essential oil of Melia dubia Cav. (Meliaceae) has been studied by GC–MS. The leaf essential oil consists chiefly of monoterpenes (35.71%) and oxygenated monoterpenes (27.98%), accompanied by a relatively much smaller amount of alkanes (11.17%), sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (9.26%) and phenylpropanoids (3.90%). The monoterpene camphene occurs as a major constituent (21.68%) of this leaf essential oil. It is accompanied by a noticeable amount of α‐ and β‐pinene (3.12% and 5.13%, respectively) and a much smaller amount of sabinene (2.75%). The oxygenated monoterpenes are distinctly dominated by the presence of the bicyclic ketone camphor (17.85%), while iso‐borneol and borneol are detected in much smaller amounts (4.15% and 1.12%, respectively). Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.