Олія нагармоти

What it is

The plant is a perennial herbaceous member of the sedge family Cyperaceae. Cyperus scariosus is an accepted species name.

Botany

The botanist Robert Brown first formally described the species in 1810. It occurs in Papua New Guinea and Australia. Within Australia it is found in northern, eastern and central Queensland, the northern Northern Territory and Western Australia. In parts of India the name is commonly misapplied to Cyperus pertenuis. The genus Cyperus is a large genus of about 700 species of sedges, distributed throughout all continents in both tropical and temperate regions. The genus name comes from the ancient Greek kúperos, a word for one or several species of this genus.

Chemistry

Nagarmotha rhizomes collected from 13 locations in India gave oils whose chemical composition differed considerably. The major compounds were cyperene, longifolin, caryophyllene oxide and longiverbenone. Cyperene varied from 5.77% to 24.17% of the oil depending on the site. Longifolin ranged from 5.95% to 20.43%, caryophyllene oxide from 2.42% to 10.38% and longiverbenone from 3.96% to 12.71%. The carbon isotope ratio of the oils varied from -11.15 to -15.78 per mil. Cyperene has the formula C₁₅H₂₄.

A related oil

Another sedge, priprioca (Cyperus articulatus), is a traditional spice of the Amazon region, and its reddish essential oil is used commercially by the cosmetic industry and increasingly as a food flavouring.

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Related: Alder · Alpha Humulene · Amaranth · Amberever · Amburana Bark · Antillone · Apple Tree