In the present study, GC-MS analyses were performed with powder samples of flower, fruit, leaf, and stem of Zanthoxylum armatum DC. collected from Thambalkhong, Imphal-East district of Manipur, a north-eastern region of India, based on the season and growth stage of the plant using the extraction method headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) to study the total profile of volatile compounds. Variations were discovered in the volatile compound profiles. HS-SPME-GC-MS analyses of the plant parts detected and identified 16 to 36 compounds and found a total area percentage composition of 96.81 to 98.63%. The analysis showed that nine common compounds were detected in the studied plant parts and seasons, namely, α-thujene, α-pinene, sabinene, β-pinene, terpinolene, o-cymene, sylvestrene, eucalyptol, and caryophyllene. The monoterpenoid eucalyptol (1,8-cineole) was revealed to be the principal component with an area percentage composition of 31.02% in spring leaf to 73.16% in monsoon stem. The extraction method used in this investigation was very fast and feasible for the analysis, and the findings of the present study will help understand the mechanism behind the changes in the plant’s volatile organic compound profile and future research work for selecting aroma-rich accessions for targeted improvement of this plant.

The present work is an attempt to develop transgenic hairy root system in Camellia assamica, using leaves infected by Agrobacterium rhizogenes strain LBA9402, harboring binary vector (pART27 and pBI121) carrying β-glucuronidase (gus) as reporter gene and neomycin phosphotransferase (nptII) as selection marker. The transformed hairy roots were grown in phytohormone free MS media in the presence of kanamycin 50 µg/ml. The incorporation and expression of foreign genes were checked by initial gus assay followed by PCR analysis for the presence of nptII and β-glucuronidase (gus) gene. This protocol therefore facilitates the study of gene expression system in general and for root functional genomics in particular, giving scope for transgenic hairy roots as future explants for secondary metabolite production and plantlet regeneration. Key words: Agrobacterium rhizogenes, transformation, Camellia assamica, nptII, β-glucuronidase (gus).