Authors: Tanner Beck, Prabodh Satyal, William N Setzer, Ambika Poudel, Joseph Hilton, Michael C Rotter
Mentors: Michael Rotter
Insitution: Utah Valley University
Rhus aromatica Aiton, commonly known as fragrant sumac, is a plant that produces a strong aromatic essential oil that has the potential to have many applications. The essential oil yield and composition were examined over a four-week period from May – June 2023. This also includes a comparative analysis between both Rhus aromatica and Rhus trilobata Nutt. The results show that there is a correlation between the outside temperature and the essential oil yield. In Week 1, there was a 0.21% yield, and each week as the temperature outside increased, the yield decreased, and in Week 4 there was just a 0.07% yield. It also shows that as the outside temperature increased, some of the lighter hydrocarbons such as limonene decreased, while other heavier hydrocarbons such as β-caryophyllene and germacrene D increased as the outside temperature increased. Limonene was also shown to be the main component of R. aromatica essential oil at an average of 86.2% area with > 98% of that being the enantiomer D-limonene. In addition, the effect that different drying methods had on the yield and composition of the essential oils was studied. The results show that when drying the plant material in the oven, there is a greater yield at 0.31%, whereas the shade and sun dry methods had lower yields at 0.09% and 0.02%, respectively. The results also are able to show the differences that R. aromatica and R. trilobata have chemically using SPME headspace. The main component of R. trilobata was α-pinene compared to the D-limonene in R. aromatica. This study helps to understand more of the correlation that outside temperature and essential yield/composition has on the species R. aromatica particularly during the May-June sampling period.