GC-MS analysis of the essential oils of ripe fruits, roots and flowering aerial parts of Elaeoselinum asclepium subsp. meoides growing in Sicily.

The compositions of the essential oils obtained by hydrodistillation of the ripe fruits, flowering aerial parts and roots of Elaeoselinum asclepium (L.) Bertol subsp. meoides (Desf.) Fiori (Apiaceae) were determined by GC-MS analysis. All the analyzed parts were very rich in α-pinene (77.1%, 92.2% and 60.8%, respectively). Other compounds detected in appreciable amounts were β-pinene (4.3%, 4.0% and 8.2%), and sabinene (11.9% in ripe fruits; 12.8% in aerial parts). The plant synthesizes different classes of monoterpenes, including pinane, camphane, thujane, menthane, and fenchane derivatives, besides some acyclic monoterpenes. Trace amounts of sesquiterpenes and diterpenes were also detected

Efficacy of an Aqueous Extract of Stellaria media (L.) Cyr. against Eimeria legionensis Infection (Apicomplexa: Eimeridae) in Red-legged Partridges (Alectoris rufa)

Aims: Coccidiosis is one of the most frequent causes of morbidity and mortality in farmed redlegged partridges (Alectoris rufa). The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of the plant Stellaria media (Caryophyllaceae) on coccidia-infected red-legged partridges. Methodology: Of 9 replicates of redlegged partridges, each composed by 6 coccidia-infected birds (Eimeria legionensis), 3 replicates (S group) received an aqueous extract (12 ml/l) of S. media with drinking water for 3 consecutive days, while 3 further replicates (D group) received 20% sodium sulfaquinoxaline (2 g/l) with drinking water for 3 consecutive days. The remaining 3 replicates did not receive any treatment (C group). The day before the beginning of the treatment (day 0), the last day of the treatment (day 3) and 7 days after the end of the treatment (day 10), individual fresh faecal samples were collected from all examined birds and analysed for presence and number of coccidian oocysts/gram of faeces (OPG). Data were statistically elaborated with the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and the Test of Student-Newman-Keuls for multiple comparisons. The percentage of reduction of the mean OPG number was also assessed. In addition, all birds were clinically observed in order to evaluate the appearance of diarrhoea and of other signs of clinical coccidiosis. Results: Seven days after the end of the treatment, birds of the C group showed diarrhoea and significant (P<0.05) higher OPG numbers respect to those of S and D groups, while no significant differences resulted between S and D groups. Moreover, percentages of OPG reduction of 98.61% and 99.60% and of 99.23% and 78.46% were found at day 3 and day 10 for group S and group D, respectively, while an increased mean OPG number was observed in the untreated group (C). Conclusion: After oral administration to the examined red-legged partridges S. media was able not only to prevent the clinical form of coccidiosis, but also to give a significant reduction of E. legionensis OPG number in faecal samples of birds treated with this plant. This reduction resulted comparable to that observed in animals treated with the commercial drug

Geographical patterns of in vivo spontaneously emitted volatile organic compounds in Salvia spp.

The genus Salvia is part of the family of the Lamiaceae, comprising almost 1000 different species that make it the largest one in this family; it includes annual, biennial and perennial specimens. It shows a wide variety of characteristics in the specimens, both in the external appearance and the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) profiles. Such a wide number of species is due to the almost ubiquitous origin of this genus, but also to the cultivars selection carried out by botanists and private collectors during centuries. In this work, we analysed the spontaneous volatile emission profiles of living samples to evaluate the existence of possible patterns and to find out possible parameters that lead to such patterns. We carried out the analysis on living samples of leaves taken from 30 species of Salvia obtained from a large collection, which has been bestowed the title of “collection of national relevance” by the Italian Botany Society, located at the Botanical Garden of the University of Pisa. Within the collected samples, 14 are specimens whose natural habitat is the Mediterranean Europe and Middle East regions, 14 species have their native environment in the Central and Southern America, and 2 come from South Africa. The sampling was carried out using the Head Space - Solid Phase Micro Extraction technique. The captured volatile organic compounds were then characterized by GC-MS. We carried out a Multivariate Statistical Analysis on the results to show possible relevant patterns: we found out that the spontaneous volatile emission profiles differ significantly accordingly to the geographical origin of the various species. This permitted to hypothesize that the environment plays a fundamental role in Salvia secondary metabolites production: the volatile fraction, in particular, represents the reaction of the specimen to the particular local environment (temperature, humidity, latitude, altitude, pollinators, enemies…), making it a very specific chemotaxonomical marker. These results, once improved with a wider number of specimens analyses, could be used as a method to identify the origins of unknown cultivars and wild Salvia species. At present, the dietary and pharmacological use of Salvia is restricted to a small number of species. This genus exhibits a largely variable thujones (α- and β-thujone) content, which determines the edibility and the potential human toxicity if used in dietary and pharmacological supplements or in essential oil form. Thujone toxicity has been widely studied and its intake can result in neurotoxicity, both acute and chronic: it inhibits GABAA receptors, inducing dose-dependent excitation and convulsions. This becomes especially important in assessing the safety of use in children: in 2011 a report showed the case of a child and a newborn who experienced generalized tonic-clonic seizures after an accidental exposure to sage essential oil. In this study, we also investigated the collected leaves samples to assess the presence (or the lack of) thujone in the spontaneously emitted volatile fraction. We found specimens without thujone, thus making them suitable possible candidates for food and pharmacological use. Furthermore, the different aromatic profiles could suggest different uses of the various species as spices

Essential Oil Composition and in vivo Volatiles Emission by Different Parts of Coleostephus myconis Capitula

The essential oil obtained by hydrodistillation of the flowering capitula of Coleostephus myconis (syn. Chrysanthemum myconis) was constituted almost exclusively of oxygenated sesquiterpenes (85.8%). The main constituent was T-cadinol (66.2%), followed by valeranone (8.2%), germacrene D (6.0%) and α-cadinol (4.6%). By mean of the SPME technique, the volatiles emitted in vivo by the whole capitula and by tubular and ligulate florets have been identified. Many differences were evidenced among the different organs and with respect to the essential oi

Weeds for weed control: Asteraceae essential oils as natural herbicides.

The aim of this study was to test the botanical family of Asteraceae as a source of natural herbicides. Twenty Asteraceae species were collected during flowering time and evaluated in terms of the yield and quality of essential oils (germination inhibition and growth of weeds). Half the species showed a sufficient yield of essential oil (from about 0.1% to 1.43%) when testing these phytochemicals in vitro as germination inhibitors of two typical weeds, Amaranthus retroflexus and Setaria viridis. Despite the higher tolerance of S. viridis, the concentration of 100 lg L 1 of essential oils of the two Artemisia species and Xanthium strumarium could totally inhibit germination. In addition, at 10 lg L 1, the same essential oils showed full inhibition of A. retroflexus seeds. A comparison of their effectiveness at suboptimal doses led to a further selection of the most promising sources of essential oils. After their chemical characterisation, the essential oils were tested as post-emergence herbicides on seedlings of the above-cited weeds. After spraying the weeds at different concentrations (10, 100 and 1000 mg L 1) during two different phenological stages of weed seedlings (cotyledons and the third true leaf), the essential oils of Artemisia annua and X. strumarium showed the best performance. The essential oils of X. strumarium were then tested again on both weeds to monitor the dynamics of plant injury. A reduction in plant fresh weight (about 20%–30% after 10 days) and chlorophyll content (destroyed, after the same amount of time) was found, thus confirming the total and rapid effectiveness of these essential oils. In summary, A. annua and X. strumarium have elicited considerable agronomic interest and appear to be suitable as a source of essential oils to act as natural herbicides

A Myristicin-rich Essential Oil from Daucus Sahariensis Growing in Algeria:

The essential oils obtained by hydrodistillation from leaves and fruits of Daucus sahariensis Murb. were analyzed by GC/MS. The main constituents of the essential oil from the leaves were myristicin (34.3%), α-pinene (5.4%), cis-chrysanthenyl acetate (5.3%) and epi-α-bisabolol (4.8%), and those from the fruits myristicin (43.9%), α-pinene (13.1%), limonene (9.4%), and cis-chrysanthenyl acetate (7.4%). Myristicin, the main constituent of both essential oils, is generally absent in the oils from other Daucus species, permitting the hypothesis that this compound is a chemical marker of this Saharan species

Essential oil compositions of two populations of Salvia samuelssonii growing in different biogeographical regions of Jordan.

The composition of the essential oils of flowering aerial parts of Salvia samuelssonii Rech. fil. (Lamiaceae Section Aethiopis), collected in two different biogeographical regions, has been analyzed. Sample1, collected in a Mediterranean-like region, "As-Subayhi", contains mainly monoterpenes (54.2%), sesquiterpenes (27.6%) and phenylpropanoids (10.5%), while sample 2, collected in the Irano-Turanian region, "Al-Adasiyyah", contains mainly phenylpropanoids (30.6%), monoterpenes (24.9%) and sesquiterpenes (21.2%). In Sample1, the most representative constituents were sabinene (21.5%), cis-chrysanthenyl acetate (20.8%), germacrene D (9.3%) and myristicin (5.9%), while in sample 2, myristicin (24.1%), sclareoloxide (6.3%), and germacrene D (5.7%) were main constituents. The rate of oxygenated derivatives in the Irano-Turanian sample was higher than the Mediterranean sample. Myristicin is an unusual constituent of Salvia species

Evaluation of volatile constituents of Cochlospermum angolense.

The chemical composition of the essential oils obtained from the leaves and roots of Cochlospermum angolense (Welw) growing wild in Angola was analyzed for the first time by capillary gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The investigation led to the identification of 67 and 130 compounds from the leaves and roots, respectively. Both oils were strongly characterized by the presence of sesquiterpenoids (68.8% in the leaves and 53.2% in the roots), while monoterpenoids were present in minor percentages (9.8% in the leaves and 26.2% in the root). The main constituents of the leaves were germacrene D (9.4%), α-cadinol (7.4%) and 10- epi-cubenol (6.2%), while the most abundant compounds in the root essential oil were the sesquiterpenes β-caryophyllene (19.7%) and isoborneol (6.6%). The analysis by HS-SPME of the roots, leaves, fruits and seeds were also reported for the first time. Different volatile profiles were detected

Chemical profile and antifungal potential of essential oils from leaves and flowers of Salvia algeriensis (Desf.): A comparative study

Salvia is a plant genus widely used in folk medicine in the Mediterranean area since antiquity. A large number of Salvia essential oils have been reported against diverse microorganisms. In the current study, chemical composition of essential oils from leaves and flowers of Salvia algeriensis (Desf.) was determined using gas chromatography-electron impact mass spectrometry (GC-EIMS) as well as their antifungal activity against phytopathogenic fungi Alternaria solani and Fusarium oxysporum exploring disk method. The GC-EIMS analysis identified 59 compounds (84.8%) in the essential oil obtained from leaves of S. algeriensis. Its major constituents were benzaldehyde (9.7%), eugenol (8.7%) and phenylethyl alcohol (8.4%). In flowers oil, 34 compounds (92.8%) were detected. The main ones were viridiflorol (71.1%) and globulol (8.6%). The essential oil obtained from leaves exhibited the highest antifungal activity, where the effective dose inhibiting 50% of mycelial fungal (ED50) against A. solani was 0.90 μL mL-1 with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) equal to 2 μL mL-1, whereas the ED50 and MIC in F. oxysporum culture was 1.84 μL mL-1 and 3 μL mL-1 respectively. The mycelial inhibition by flowers oil varies from 1.77 μL mL-1 (ED50) with A. solani culture (MIC 6.5 μL mL-1) to the lowest effect recorded (ED50 3.00 μL mL-1 and MIC 9.33 μL mL-1) against F. oxysporum. To our best knowledge, this is the first report on S. algeriensis, their leaves oil can constitute an alternative biocontrol against phytopathogenic fungi commonly controlled by chemical fungicides

Constituents of Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp., Moringa oleifera Lam., Heliotropium indicum L. and Bidens pilosa L. from Nigeria.

The essential oils of four plant species from Nigeria have been extracted by hydrodistillation and analyzed by GC and GC-MS. The oils of Cajanus cajan were comprised of sesquiterpenes (92.5%, 81.2% and 94.3% respectively in the leaves, stem and seeds). The major compounds identified were α-himachalene (9.0-11.5%), β-himachalene (8.0-11.0%), γ-himachalene (6.9-8.1%), α-humulene (7.1-8.7%) and α-copaene (4.5-5.6%). However, monoterpenoid compounds (81.8%) dominated the oil of Moringa oleifera with an abundance of α-phellandrene (25.2%) and p-cymene (24.9%). On the other hand, aldehydes (52.8%) occurred in the highest amount in Heliotropium indicum, represented by phenylacetaldehyde (22.2%), ( E)-2-nonenal (8.3%) and (E, Z)-2-nonadienal (6.1%), with a significant quantity of hexahydrofarnesylacetone (8.4%). The leaf and stem oils of Bidens pilosa were dominated by sesquiterpenes (82.3% and 59.3%, respectively). The main compounds in the leaf oil were caryophyllene oxide (37.0%), β-caryophyllene (10.5%) and humulene oxide (6.0%), while the stem oils had an abundance of hexahydrofarnesyl acetone (13.4%), δ-cadinene (12.0%) and caryophyllene oxide (11.0%). The observed chemical patterns differ considerably from previous investigations