Composition of the Essential Oil of Teucrium persicum Boiss. From Iran

Abstract

The essential oil of Teucrium persicum Boiss. was obtained by hydrodistillation of the aerial parts of the plant and analyzed by GC and GC/MS. Eighty-one components representing 93.5% of the total oil were identified. The main components of the oil were caryophyllene oxide (10.6%), α-pinene (9.4%), geranyl linalool (7.8%), γ-cadinene (7.4%), elemol (6.9%) and α-cadinol (5.5%).

Key Word Index

Teucrium persicum, Lamiaceae, essential oil composition, caryophyllene oxide.

Introduction

The genus Teucrium belongs to the Lamiaceae famüy and comprises about 13 species in Iran (1). Various species of this genus are known for their use in folk medicine. In Iranian folk medicine, T.polium is used as anticonvulsant (2). The essential oil of T.polium has been reported to possess antispasmodic activity and an ethanolic extract showed anti-inflammatory, antipyretic and antibacterial activities (3-5). Teucrium montanum, T. chamaedrys T.polium and T.marum have also been found to possess antioxidant activity (6,7). This genus contains a large variety of compounds, mainly flavonoids, diterpenoids, steroids and essential oils (8) . Teucrium persicum is an endemic plant of Iran and is distributed only in south of Iran. As far as we know, there is no previous report on the chemical analysis of die oil of T persicum.

Experimental

Plant Material and Isolation Procedure: The plant material of Teucrium persicum Boiss. was collected in March 2004 from Darab in Fars province at 1180 m height, during flowering stage. The plant was identified by die Department of Biology, University of Shiraz (Iran). A specimen (herbarium No. 40152) has been depositedin die Herbarium ofdie Faculty of Sciences, Shiraz University. The aerial parts of the plant were air-dried at ambient temperature in die shade and die oil was obtained by hydrodistiUation using a Clevenger-type apparatus for 3 h. The obtained oil was dissolved in n-hexane (Merck), dried over anhydrous sodium sulphate and stored at 4°-6°C until analyzed.

Identification of the oil components: GC analysis was carried out using a Varían GC 3600 (FID) Chromatograph equipped widi DB-5 column (30m X 0.25 mm X 0.25 µp?) widi N2 as the carrier gas and flow rate 0.9 mL/min and split ratio 1:20. Oven temperature was performed as follows: 60°-240°C at 3°C/min, injector and detector temperatures, 2400C and 2500C, respectively. GC/MS analysis was carried out using a Hewlett-Packard 6890 operating at 70 eV ionization energy, equipped with a HP-5 capillary column (phenyl mediyl siloxane, 30m X 0.25 mm X 0.25 µ??) with He as the carrier gas, flow rate 0.9 mL/min and split ratio 1:20. Oven temperature was performed as follows: 60°-240°C at 3°min; injector and interface temperature was hold at 240° and 25O0C, respectively. Retention indices were determined by using retention times of n-alkanes diat has been injected after the oil under die same chromatographic conditions. The retention indices for all the components were determined according to the Van Den Dool method using n-alkanes as standard (9). The compounds were identified by comparison of retention indices (RRI, HP-5) with those reported in die literature and by comparison of their mass spectra widi die Wiley and Mass Finder 3 libraries or widi die published mass spectra (10,11).

Results and Discussion

The yield of the oil was 0.01%. Data obtained from qualitative and quantitative determination of die oil sample is shown in Table I. Eighty-one components representing 93.5% of the total oil were identified. It consisted mainly of sesquiterpenes (64.6%) where caryophyllene oxide (10.6%), geranyl linalool (7.8%), ?-cadinene (7.4%), elemol (6.9%) and a-cadinol (5.5%) were die major constituents. The monoterpene fraction of die oU was about25.4%, which was dominated by α-pinene (9.4%). Caryophyllene oxide was one of die main components of die oil of T. orientale (33.5%) and T. carolipaui (4.5%) (12,13). a-Pinene was present as die major constituents of die oils of T. chamaedrys, T. polium, T. capitatum, T. lusitanicum, T. algarbiensis, T. libanitis and T. melissoides ( 14-19). d-Cadinene and ß- caryophyllene also were present in some species of Teucrium oil as the main compounds (14,16,19,20).

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a grant from Iran National Scientific Funding (Grant No. 84085).

References

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M. Tariq, A.M. Ageel, M.A. al-yahya, J.S. Mossa and M.S. al-Said, Anti-inflammatory activity of Teucrium polium. Int. J. Tissue React, 185-188(1989).

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