Volatile Oil Composition of Boxthorn (Lycium chinense M.) Leaves

Volatile components were extracted from leaves of two Boxthorn (Lycium chinense M.) cultivars by using simultaneous distillation and extraction, analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Seventy components were identified : 13 acids, 15 alcohols, 18 hydrocarbons, 13 carbonyls, three esters, three ionones, and five others. The principal volatile components (and their peak area percentage) were n-pentanol (11.2～30.2%), phytol (14.5～28.3%), hexadecanoic acid (13.5～17.1%) 2,3-dihydrobenzofuran (1.5～4.2%), benzyl alcohol (1.9-4.8%), phenylacetaldehyde (1.8～3.2%), and octadecadienoic acid (1.7～10.7%). Fresh leaves showed much higher peak area than that of dried leaf in n-pentanol, n-hexanol, cis-2-penten-l-ol, cis-3-hexen-l-ol, benzyl alcohol, and $\beta$-phenylethyl alcohol, while dried leaves showed much higher content than that of fresh leaves in 9-hydroxytheaspran A, octadecanoic acid and octadecadienic acid.