Abstract

Coniferous trees are rich in chemical compounds such as terpenes, fats/fatty acids, waxes, tannins and phenolics, which function to protect the tree against insect pests and diseases, and as energy reserves. Oleoresin is an important natural product that is a mixture of resins (diterpene acids) and volatile essential oils (mono- and sesquiterpenes) that serve as a solvent to maintain the oleoresin in a fluid state. The resin obtained from borehole method of tapping was free from impurities and oleoresin color was also clear in this method. On distillation of borehole oleoresin the rosin content of 67.11(55.02)% and turpentine contents of 32.30(5.68)% were obtained, whereas in other conventional method the rosin contents [75.25(60.18)%] were recorded to be higher and turpen-tine content [18.59(4.31)%] were lower than borehole method. The rosin obtained from borehole method oleo- resin was white in color and free from crystlization, whereas the rill method rosin was yellow to dark yellow in color. So, the borehole rosin is of better quality and fetch higher price in the market than other method oleoresin. The values of specific gravity, ash content and iron content were found to be 1.0258, 0.30(0.55)% and 3.37 ppm, respectively in borehole rosin, whereas the specific gravity, ash content and iron content of value 1.07315, 0.42(0.65)% and 5.81 ppm, respectively were recorded in rill method rosin. The major components of turpentine oil were alpha-pinene [34.13(5.84)%], and other terpenes [0.76(0.87)%], which were found to be significantly higher in borehole turpentine as compare to rill method, whereas non-significant difference has been observed for beta-pinene+delta-3 carene and longifolene among both the resins.

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