Composition and variability of the essential oil of Sardinian Thymus herba-barona Loisel

✍ Scribed by Marianna Usai; Aldo Atzei; Giorgio Pintore; Ioseph Casanova

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2003
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 87 KB
• Volume: 18
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0882-5734
• DOI: 10.1002/ffj.1137

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The essential oils from nine wild populations of the Sardinian Thymus herba‐barona Loisel (Labiatae) were chemically characterized to identify the different chemotypes. GC and GC–MS analysis showed that in Sardinia only two chemotypes (thymol and carvacrol) are present. The carvacrol chemotype is predominant and this compound was found in high concentration (50.7–79.4%) in seven of the nine populations studied. The thymol chemotype was found in only two populations (34.2–56.2%). Analyses also showed that the other main components of the oils of T. herba‐barona, were 3‐heptanone (1.4–5.6%), 3‐octanone (1.4–5.5%) and borneol (2.5–8.3%). p‐Cymene is present at 1.2–5.6% but is not present in plants from the Tonara medium station, where O‐cymene (1.9%) is present instead. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.