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

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

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

Essential oils and volatile emission of eight South African species of Helichrysum grown in uniform environmental conditions

Abstract This paper reported for the first time the aroma profile and essential oil composition of eight species of Helichrysum endemic in South Africa but grown in Italy (CREA-Sanremo collection). The volatiles of all the studied Helichrysum were dominated by monoterpene hydrocarbons, except for H. basalticum, where sesquiterpene hydrocarbons was the main class of compounds with β-caryophyllene (13.7%) and α-guaiene (11.9%) as major components. Despite the great diversity of compounds obtained in the volatile emission (more than 130), only four compounds were responsible for at least 34% of the identified fraction. These compounds were: sabinene (16.0%), β-caryophyllene and α-guaiene in H. basalticum; sabinene (57.7%) in H. foetidum; (Z)-β-ocimene (34.6%), tricyclene (16.2%) and myrcene (10.0%) in H. incanatum; myrcene (29.3%), tricyclene (21.5%) and limonene in H. indicum; tricyclene (32.1%) and (E)-3-hexanol acetate (20.1%) in H. montanum; limonene (10.3%), sabinene (8.9%), 1-decene (7.6%) and 1-hexanol (7.0%) in H. mutabile; α- and β-pinene in H. patulum (27.6% and 44.9%, respectively) and α-pinene (36.3%) and α-fanchene(15.6%) in H. setosum. The EOs composition of these species was also different from each other with sesquiterpene compounds as the prevalent class. Valerianol (16.3%, os, in H. basalticum), ledol (16.3%, os, in H. foetidum), β-caryophyllene (11.0% and 13.4%, sh, in H. indicum and H. patulum, respectively), viridiflorol (18.3%, os, in H. montanum) and valerianol (30.1%, os in H. setosum) were found to be the main constituents. It is worthy to highlighting that the H. incarnatum EO showed a similar behaviour to that of the spontaneous emission with a predominance of monoterpene hydrocarbons (60.7% in EO vs 81.4% in VOC), both represented by (Z)-β-ocimene as main constituent

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

Essential oil constituents of Eclipta prostrata (L.) L. and Vernonia amygdalina Delile

The chemical composition of the essential oils from the leaves and stem bark of Eclipta prostrata (L.) L. and the aerial parts of Vernonia amygdalina Delile (Asteraceae) have been analyzed by capillary gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The investigation led to the identification of 33 and 30 compounds in the oils of the leaves and stem of E. prostrate, respectively, and 40 compounds in the oil of V. amygdalina. While the oil of the leaves of E. prostrata was highly dominated by sesquiterpenoids (89.3%), the stem bark was comprised of sesquiteprenoids (47.7%), straight chain hydrocarbons (25.6%) and monoterpenoids (11.1%). The main constituents of both oils were β-caryophyllene (47.7% and 15.9%) and α-humulene (31.8 and 12.9%) in the leaves and stem, respectively. In addition, ( E)-β-farnesene (10.0%) was also identified in significant amount in the stem bark. On the other hand, the major component of V. amygdalina oil was α-muurolol (45.7%)