Attached
Aquilaria malaccensis Lam. and Gyrinops
walla Gaertn. are large evergreen trees (Family
Thymelaeaceae). A. malaccensis produces resin
called agarwood that has a high economic value in
perfumery industry. G. walla also produces a resin
similar to agarwood. Thus, screening o f
phytochemicals present in A. malaccensis and G.
walla would be important. Stem samples o f test
species were collected and air dried. After that they
were size reduced and phytochemicals were
extracted using soxhlet extractor with two different
solvents. Extracts were concentrated using rotary
evaporator and concentrated samples were subjected
to Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GCMS) analysis. Obtained chromatograms were used to
identify and compare the phytochemical constituents.
Dichloromethane found to be better solvent than
acetone to extract phytochemicals. Phytochemical
composition o f A. malaccensis and G. walla are not
similar even though they share some phytochemicals
in common. Major compounds that are responsible
fo r the fragrance o f agarwood are absent in both
stem samples when collected in immature stages.
This study could be extended to further optimize
phytochemical extraction procedure, screening
protocol andGC-MS programme.
