Author(s)

Appolonia A. Obiloma¹, Wenceslaus C. Madu¹, Godson O. Osuji², Peter A. Ampim², Aruna D. Weerasooriya², Laura E. Carson²

¹Medicinal Plants Research and Food Processing Unit, Imo State Polytechnic, Owerri, Nigeria.
²Depatment of Plant Systems, College of Agriculture and Human Sciences, Prairie View A&M University, Prairie View, TX, USA.

Tropical medicinal plant spices have remained underutilized in commercial food processing because of the inadequate chemical characterization of their terpene compositions. The activity of medicinal plants used in flavoring is due to their terpene contents. Terpene contents of Aframomum danielli seeds, Xylopia aethiopica fruits, Syzygium aromaticum leaves, Piper guineense seeds, and Monodora myristica seeds were determined using headspace solid-phase microextraction combined with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. P. guineense is rich in terpinene and terpinolene (2.5 g per 100 g), S. aromaticum has caryophyllene (0.68 g per 100 g); A. danielli is rich in ocimene (1.65 g per 100 g); X. aethiopica is rich in ocimene (2.94 g per 100 g); M. mystristica is rich in delta carene (0.49 g per 100 g). Combinations of the five medicinal plant spices are being applied as flavorings in packaged tropical food.

γ-Terpinene, β-Caryophyllene, Ocimene, Delta Carene, African Rain Forest, Microextraction GC-MS

Obiloma, A. , Madu, W. , Osuji, G. , Ampim, P. , Weerasooriya, A. and Carson, L. (2019) Terpene-Rich Medicinal Plant Spices for Flavoring of Processed Tropical Food. American Journal of Plant Sciences, 10, 572-577. doi: 10.4236/ajps.2019.104041.