Chemical composition and flavour quality of tirphal Zanthoxylum rhetsa.

The dried fruits of Zanthoxylum rhetsa are used as
fruits is pleasantly aromatic and tastes like orange
an ingredient in the preparation of spice blends like
rind. The seeds are hard and black in colour,
garam masala powder. The pericarp of the fruit is
pungent and contain a soft kernel. The dried fruits
highly aromatic and rich in essential oil. The whole
contain an essential oil called Mullillam oil which is
dried fruits of five commercial samples were analysed
obtained by steam distillation of the powdered fruits.
for their physical and chemical composition. The
The oil has a pleasant odour resembling that of
dried fruits are fibrous in nature, yield about 14%
sweet orange or tangerine. (Wealth of India 1976;
oleoresin and about 3% essential oil. The essential
Rao and Bhave 1959). This oil is manufactured on a
oil is colourless, aromatic and resembles citrus oils
commercial scale but its uses are not well known).
to a certain extent. The essential oil was subjcted to
GC-MS analysis and 32 components were identified
and quantified. Of the compounds identified,
sabinene accounts for nearly 55% of the essential
oil. The other major compounds were (%) : 4-
terpineol (5.6), [3 - elemene (3.6), a - terpineol (2.9),
- Phellandrene (2.9), [3 - pinene (1.3), Y - terpinene
(2.7) and myrcene (2.0).