The plant is known as mullilam and a member of the Rutaceae family. It grows in the foothills of Assam, Meghalaya and most of the eastern and Western Ghats in India.
The fruit is prized as a black pepper condiment. The fruits are aromatic carpels with seeds that have a peppery pungency.
The volatile oil of Zanthoxylum rhetsa, D.C. has been analysed by a combination of gas chromatography and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Thirteen new components were identified. (-)-Sabinene comprised ∼50% of the oil (Joy et al., 1986). Further analysis has been conducted using supercritical carbon dioxide extraction (Rout et al., 2007).
References
Joy, M. T., Verghese, J., Retamar, J. A., Talenti, E. C. J., Catalan, C. A. N., & Gros, E. G. (1986). Essential oil of Zanthoxylum rhetsa. Flavour and Fragrance Journal, 1(4‐5), pp. 165-168 (Article).
Rout, P. K., Naik, S. N., Rao, Y. R., Jadeja, G., & Maheshwari, R. C. (2007). Extraction and composition of volatiles from Zanthoxylum rhesta: Comparison of subcritical CO2 and traditional processes. The Journal of Supercritical Fluids, 42(3), pp. 334-341 (Article).
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