Enantiomeric purity of (+/-) -methyl jasmonate in fresh leaf samples and commercial fragrances.

The enantiomeric purity of (+/-) -methyl jasmonate in fresh leaf material of Jasminum from different species and Rosmarinus officinalis was examined by solid-phase microextraction-GC-MS (SPME-GC-MS). For comparison with these natural products, commercial jasmine and rosemary fragrances were also studied. The extraction conditions were selected as a result of testing different values of temperature (40, 50, and 60 degrees C) and time (2, 15, 30, and 40 min). The results obtained in this work revealed a range of enantiomeric excesses for (+/-) -methyl jasmonate varying from 13 to 95% depending on the Jasminum specie considered. In contrast, (-) -methyl jasmonate always occurred as a pure enantiomer in all R. officinalis samples studied. This implies those Jasminum species in which the enantiomeric purity of (-) -methyl jasmonate is high enough and any R. officinalis sample might be used as natural sources of pure (-) -methyl jasmonate. Concerning the commercial fragrances, those of jasmine showed enantiomeric composition of (-) -methyl jasmonate ranging from 1 to 15% whereas those of rosemary exhibited practically the pure (-) -methyl jasmonate. This fact suggests the addition and nonaddition of the racemic mixture of methyl jasmonate to the commercial jasmine and rosemary samples, respectively.