Seasonal variation of the essential oil of Rosmarinus officinalis L.
Written by sctunisie no commentsThe essential oil isolated by hydrodistillation from young sprouts of Rosmarinus officinalis L. (Lamiaceae) collected from four natural populations of Tunisia (El Houdh, Chambi, Oueslatia and Zaghouan) at three periods of the year 2000 (February, April, July) have been analyzed by gas chromatograph and gas chromatograph coupled with mass spectrometer. 36 compounds have been isolated with quantitative variations between the various populations examined. 1,8-cineole (31.1-55.4%) was found to be the main component of this oil. Monoterpenes were shown to be the major fraction (91.3-98.8%) and mainly composed of 1,8-cineole, α-pinene, camphene, p-cymene, limonene, α-terpineol, camphor, borneol and bornyl acetate. For all populations, the highest yield of oil was obtained from samples collected in April.
F. Bannour, I. Chéraif, M. El Gazzah, F. Farhat, M. Hammami, R. Chemli
Rosmarinus officinalis, Lamiaceae, Essential oil, 1,8-Cineole
Pages 63-68
