The composition of the essential oil in the leaves of Coleus aromaticus Bentham and their importance as a component of the species antiaphthosae Ph. Ned. Ed. V.

The leaves of Coleus aromaticus Bentham were used in the East Indian archipelago, mainly in cases of aphthous stomatitis. For this purpose the Dutch Pharmacopoeia Ed. v introduced the Species antiaphthosae with Coleus leaves as an active component, because of their antiseptic qualities. Older research ascribed this activity to carvacrol and perhaps thymol. However, in more recent research in India eugenol and methyleugenol were also found to occur in this oil. Our investigations on original leaves from Java by GC-MS showed the absence of eugenol and methyleugenol, which leads us to the conclusion that on Java another chemotype occurs.