Compositions of terpenes in essential oils made of juniper berries

Dimitrov, Filip and Panghyova, Elena and Vargova, Vladimira and Marek, Kunstek and Baxa, Stanislav and Kovacikova, Zuzana (2022) Compositions of terpenes in essential oils made of juniper berries. ACTA AGRONOMICA ÓVÁRIENSIS, 63 (Ksz). pp. 77-89. ISSN 1416-647X

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Abstract

Juniper berries have many uses, but they are most famous as ingredients in the production of alcoholic beverages. The quality of an alcoholic beverage is affected by the composition of terpenes found in essential oil made of juniper berries. The presented paper deals with the composition of essential oils extracted from J. Communis L. berries obtained from seven areas in Slovakia. It was determined that juniper essential oil contains monoterpenes ranging from 54.5 to 63.1 % and sesquiterpenes ranging from 35.2 to 45.2 %. Dominant monoterpenes in juniper essential oil are is α-pinene, with its peak area % ranging from 27.77 % to 36.59 %, followed by myrcene (6.68 - 13.35 peak area %), D-limonene (0.83 - 3.76 peak area %) , γ-terpinene (0.17 - 1.1 peak area %), αterpinolene (0.46 - 1.17 peak area %). Dominant sesquiterpenes are germacrene-D (8.25 - 19.68 peak area %), germacrene-B (2.08 – 9.62 peak area %), β-elemene (0.43 – 3.86 peak area %), α-humulene (1.27 – 3.62 peak area %), β-caryophyllene (2.28 – 8.29 peak area %) and δ-cadinene (1.56 – 3.67 peak area %). Distillates characterized by different terpene profile compositions, especially in the content of α-pinene and myrcene, were obtained by fermentation of berries J. communis as well as J. oxycedrus and their subsequent extractive distilllation. The content of α-pinene (43.91 peak area %) and myrcene (20.98 peak area %) is higher in the distillate made from J. oxycedrus berries and the content of germacrene–D (9.84 peak area %) is higher in the distillate made from juniper J. communis.

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