Volatile emission and essential oil composition of Sambucus nigra L. organs during different developmental stages

Volatile organic compounds (VOC) and essential oils (EO) extracted from different organs of Sambucus nigra (leaves, flower buds, flowers, unripe and ripe fruits), were evaluated in this work. VOC analyses highlighted that oxygenated monoterpenes were the major class for both flowers and ripe fruits with percentages of 71.1% and 35.1%, respectively. The ripe fruit showed a considerable amount of linalyl acetate (26.3%) while cis-linalool oxide (pyranoide) (38.6%) was the main constituent of the flowers. This latter compound was also one of the major constituents of the leaf extracts (10.3% of the total identified fractions). The leaves evidenced a high percentage of esters (31.6%) with (Z)-3-hexenol acetate (15.1%) as the major constituent. Alcohols were exclusively represented by 1-hexanol (42.5%) and (E)-3-hexen-1-ol (31.1%) in the unripe fruits, while β-caryophyllene (42.0%) was the characteristic component of the buds. All the studied EOs showed non-terpene derivatives as the main class of volatiles even though its percentage varied in an organ-dependent manner. Alkanes were predominant and especially represented by heneicosane (the highest percentage of 32.9% in the fresh flowers) and nonadecane (the highest percentage of 17.2% in the buds,). Benzaldehyde was the main aldehyde in the leaves (17.8%) while acids, chiefly n-hexadecanoic acid, were also found in quite high amounts in the ripe fruits (14.3%).