Chemical variability of flower essential oils of ten well-known cultivars of Paeonia × suffruticosa Andr

This study aimed at chemical variability of flower essential oils of 10 well-known cultivars of Paeonia × suffruticosa Andr. The essential oil yields ranged as 0.19–0.67% (w/w). The chemical compositions varied with cultivars. ‘Xueying Taohua’ essential oil had predominance of citronellol (56.4%). ‘Guifei Chacui’ essential oil was rich in citronellol (35.9%) and phloroglucinol trimethyl ether (25.3%). ‘Sheng Gejin’ and ‘Yuhou Fengguang’ essential oils were rich in phloroglucinol trimethyl ether (36.5%, 26.8%). ‘Yinhong Qiaodui’ essential oil contained geraniol + nerol (23.9%). Those from the other five cultivars did not present typical chemotypes. Nevertheless several compounds were noted, mainly germacrene D, heptadeca-6,9-diene, (Z)-hex-3-en-1-ol and linalool oxide (furan). ‘Luhe Hong’ essential oil contained the most unique components, including α-cadinol, τ-muurolol and δ-cadinene. Lack of phenylethyl alcohol was noticeable in some essential oil samples as compared with hydrolate extracts investigated previously. Multivariate analyses revealed four distinct clusters from all the essential oil samples.