Compound Monograph
Beta-Selinene
Beta-selinene is a eudesmane-type sesquiterpene hydrocarbon of essential oils, including that of sweet wormwood — an aroma and chemotype constituent with no pharmacology of its own established.
Sources · 1
Where Does It Come From?
Beta-Selinene is a naturally occurring sesquiterpene hydrocarbon (eudesmane), found in Sweet wormwood. Its toxicity is not yet characterized.
Concentration
Content by Source
Concentrations not reported. No percent-dry-weight or mg/g figures have been published for this compound in its source plants.
Research & Evidence
Beta-selinene is a sesquiterpene hydrocarbon of the eudesmane skeleton, one of the ordinary volatile constituents of many essential oils — celery seed is its best-known source — and present in the oil of Artemisia annua. It sits in the same volatile pool as germacrene D and caryophyllene, and like them it is a hydrocarbon: no oxygen, no functional handle, and correspondingly little to hang a mechanism on.
It is best read as an aroma and chemotype constituent. Its presence helps characterise a given oil, and it contributes to the woody-herbaceous body of the smell, but no isolated-compound pharmacology has been established for it, and it has no structural relationship to the endoperoxide chemistry of artemisinin that carries this plant’s clinical significance.
Toxicity & Safety
No isolated-compound toxicity data were located. Sesquiterpene hydrocarbons of this kind are common dietary and aromatic constituents at the concentrations essential oils supply.
