Morphological and essential oil characterization of the banda nutmeg (Myristica fragrans Houtt.) of moluccas and north moluccas ecotypes

Abstract

An agronomic study is conducted to characterize morphological and essential oil properties of Banda nutmeg (Myristica fragrans Houtt.) ofMoluccas and North Moluccas ecotypes. In Moluccas, three sampling sites are chosen: Banda islands, Ambon and Luhu; and in North Moluccas, the sites are Ternate, Tidore and Bacan Twenty-one morphological characters of nutmeg trees are studied and the similarity index (SI) was calculated. For nutmeg production observations, two elevations are taken: 0 to 50 mabove sea level (asl) and 250 to 300 m asl. Nutmeg oils in seed and mace are extracted by using hydro-distillation method and the resulted oils then analyzed and identified for their essential oil components by GC-MS (Gas Chromatography- Mass Spectrometry). In oil extraction, two maturity levels of seeds are used: 3 to 5 months (immature) and >7 months (mature). Results reveal that 90% ofthe morphological traits observed are stabile in the six sites within the two ecotypes. The oil contents in mature seeds are 11.2 and 8.73% for Moluccas and North Moluccas, respectively. In immature seeds, however, the oil contents are much higher, ie 12.39% for Moluccas and 12.11%for North Moluccas. Higher oil contents arefound in mace at the levels of20 04% for Moluccas and 20.84% for North Moluccas. GC-MS analysis shows that the Banda nutmeg oil contains 28 to 31 different essential oil components. Four of them having economically important values are myristicin elemicm, safrole, and eugenol. In conclusion, Banda nutmeg has the highest content in myristicin, i.e. 13.76%