Importance Of Volatile Oils

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VOLATILE OILS
Volatile oils are odorous constituents of the plants. They are liquid, lipophile, volatile with characteristic smell. Volatile oil will volatize or evaporate when exposed to atmosphere at ordinary temperature, so they are called ethereal oil. They also called as essential oil, as they essence or concentrated constituents of the plants. Volatile oils are insoluble in water, which is sufficient to impart taste and smell of the water and it is used for the preparation of aromatic waters in pharmacy. Volatile oils are soluble in alcohol, ether and other lipid solvents. Volatile oils are usually lighter than water. They have high refractive index and optical rotation. These oil present in entire part of the plant or other parts of plants like leaf, flower, bark, etc.... They are some important families that contains volatile oils are Labiatae, Rutaceae, Myrtaceae, Piperaceae and Zingiberaceae. Volatile oil present in structures as glandular trichomes, …show more content…

Generally, volatile oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons and oxygenated compounds. It is derived from terpenes and their oxygenated compounds and it is made up of isoprene unit. Terpenes classified as monoterpenes (contains two isoprene units) , sesquiterpenes (three isoprene units), diterpenes (four isoprene units), triterpenes ( six isoprene units), tetraterpenes (eight isoprene units), pentaterpenes ( ten isoprene units) and polyterpentes ( n number of isoprene units). Volatile oil also contains phenyl propane derivatives. Volatile oil containing others chemicals like limonene, alpha - terpinene, terpinolene and alpha and beta phellandrene, these are monocyclic monoterpenes. Limonene is widely distributed and it is present in citrous oil, caraway oil etc... Pinene is bicyclic monoterpene, zingeberene and caryophyllene are

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