VARIATION IN ESSENTIAL OIL CONTENT AND COMPOSITION OF SOME MEDICINAL AND AROMATIC PLANTS AVAILABLE ON TURKISH MARKET

Abstract

Interest on medicinal and aromatic plants has increased during recent years as they are sources of many bioactive compounds, like essential oils, having versatile pharmacological and medicinal properties. Medicinal and aromatic plants are mostly collected from nature in Turkey and thus chemical composition of essential oils of herbal drugs available in markets is expected to be variable. In this study, variation in essential oil content and composition of eucalyptus, laurel, myrte and yarrow plant samples obtained from spice shops in Ordu province of Turkey were investigated. Essential oil contents of the plant samples were determined by water distillation and essential oil components were analyzed by GC/MS. Essential oil contents were within the ranges of 0.80-2.15% in eucalyptus, 1.55-2.85% in laurel, 0.65-1.40% in myrte and 0.25-0.45% in yarrow. A total of 26 components in eucalyptus and yarrow essential oils, 22 components in laurel and myrte essential oils were detected, representing 95.88-97.05% of the essential oils. Eucalyptol (61.53%), terpinyl acetate (7.90%) and sabinene (5.03%) in laurel; eucalyptol (48.06%), p-cymene (16.70%) and cyclopropeazulen (5.66%) in eucalyptus; eucalyptol (30.87%), a-pinene (28.23%) and linalol (8.27% in myrte, and eucalyptol (32.05%), camphor (11.09%) and carvacrol (9.27%) in yarrow were the major constituents of the essential oil. Eucalyptol was found to be the most common and the highest chemical constituent of the essential oils.