Abstract
Litsea cubeba Pers. (LC) is a deciduous bush or small tree mostly distributed in the East Asia region. It is a precious aromatic plant with multiple functions. The purpose of this study was to collect germplasms of LC from different regions of Taiwan. The chemical compositions of essential oils (EOs) extracted from different parts of LC tree was characterized by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to assess variations of EO compositions of LC collected from different parts of Taiwan. A DNA marker technique was used to estimate the genetic diversity among populations and individuals of LC. In this(2016) year, LC plants from Dasyueshan National Forestry Recreation Area were marked and ISSR PCR amplifications with 12 selected UBC primer(UBC 815， 817，827，835，840，846，848，853，873，874，881and 890) primers were carried out for DNA genetic diversity evaluation. Leaves and fruits of LC plants from Dasyueshan area were collected in July and August this year, meanwhile, fruits from Hualien and Miaoli were purchased from producers to extract EOs. EOs yield and chemical compositions on LC plants were evaluated. Results indicated that dominant components of leaf EOs from Dasyueshan were Eucalyptol (57.32~57.77%) and Sabinene(13.67~14.93%). The yield of fruit EOs varies with the origin and maturity of LC fruit(Hualien .5.12±0.06%, Miaoli 4.49±0.21%~5.68%±0.19%, Dasyueshan 6.97±0.08%). Although the relative content of EOs chemical components varied on origins of fruits, fruit EOs are mainly represented by Citral (Geranial+ Neral, >84%) and Limonene (1.91%~8.58%).