Composition of the Essential Oils from the Flowers and Leaves of Salvia sclarea L. (Lamiaceae) Cultivated in Slovak Republic

Journal of Essential Oil Research: JEOR, Mar/Apr 2005 by Farkas, Pavel, Hollá, Magda, Tekel, Jozef, Mellen, Slavomír, Vaverková, Stefánia

Abstract

The chemical composition of the essential oils obtained from the flowers and leaves of Salvia sclarea L. ( Lamiaceae) cultivated in Slovak Republic have been studied by GC and GC/MS methods, which resulted in the identification of 34 and 23 components, respectively. The major constituents in the flower oil were linalool (18.9%), linalyl acetate (13.7%), sclareol (15.7%), α-terpineol (6.5%), germacrene D (5.0%) and geranyl acetate (4.3%), while the major components in the leaf oil were germacrene D (28.8%), bicyclogermacrene (12.5%), spathulenol (10.1%), caryophyllene oxide (6.2%) and α-copaene (6.0%).

Key Word Index

Salvia sclarea, Lamiaceae, essential oil composition, linalyl acetate, linalool, germacrene D, bicyclogermacrene, spathulenol.

Introduction

Salvia, the largest genus of the Lamiaceae family, includes about 900 species wide spread over the world. Salvia sclarea is of economical importance as flavoring agent in the food industry, perfumery and cosmetic industries (1). Recent studies have shown that the clary sage oil has some interesting biological properties. The oil inhibits hyperalgesia and has appreciable anti-inflammatory effect in experimental animals. The oil has been used where inflammatory disease is present in the oral cavity (2). Some terpenoids isolated from whole plants, roots, leaves, flowers and the oil of S. sclarea has been shown to exert significant microbiostatic activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus epidermis, Candida albicans and Proteus mirabilis (3-6). The chemical composition of the clary sage oil has been reported by different researchers (6-19) using GC and GC/MS methods, and retention indices to characterize the oil. Analyzed oils usually contained high quantities of monoterpenic esters and alcohols.

The most important components in the oils were alcohols: linalool, α-terpineol, and esters: linalyl acetate, α-terpinyl acetate, geranyl acetate. However, the amount of these components varied very widely (linalool 2.6-32.8%, α-terpineol 1.5-47.4%, linalyl acetate 8.2-81.1%, and α-terpineol acetate trace-22.1%). The clary sage oil from plants cultivated in Sardinia (Italy) (6) was characterized by higher content of alcohols, mainly α-terpineol (47.4%), while the contents of linalyl acetate and α-terpinyl acetate were lower (12.7% and 22.1%, respectively). These authors have also studied the antimicrobial activity of the oils concerning their use in the pharmaceutical preparations for local application. The composition of clary sage oils from flowers and leaves has been reported in papers (7,8). In these studies, the chemical composition of the lab-distilled oil within a four year span was compared, and oxidation products were found in the older oil. Carruba et al. (9) found that oil from the inflorescences of S. sclarea was rich in linalyl acetate (35-53%), linalool (26-29%) and germacrene D (4-11%), whereas the oil from the leaves contained germacrene D (69%) as the main component. Lalande (10) compared the chemical composition of French and American clary sage oils. The French oil contained linalool and linalyl acetate in amount 10-20% and 60-70%, respectively. The American oil contained 25% of linalool and 55% of linalyl acetate. Chemical composition of the clary sage oils isolated from plants cultivated in United States, France and Russia are reported in a review (11). The content of linalool in United States, French and Russian clary sage oil was 20.3-28.5%, 9.0-16.0% and 10.4-19.5%, respectively, while the content of linalyl acetate was 44.9-53.4%, 49.0-73.6% and 45.3-61.8%, respectively. Elnir et al. (12) determined 23.5-31.0% of linalool and 34.4-44.6% of linalyl acetate in a commercial clary sage oil. Dzumayev et al. reported the composition of the cultivated clary sage oils produced over four separate seasons (13). The amounts of linalool and linalyl acetate were 22.0-36.0% and 25.0-51.0%, respectively. These authors also investigated the composition of oils produced from different plant parts (inflorescence, calyces) both wild and cultivated plants with white and rose-violet bracts. In reference 14 authors determined 33.2% of linalool and 16.9% of linalyl acetate in clary sage oil produced from wild plants grown in Spain. Souleles et al. (15) identified 72 components in the clary sage oil from plants collected in wild at Thessaloniki (Greece), where amount of linalool and linalyl acetate was 17.2% and 14.3%, respectively. Esteban et al. (16) compared the composition of clary sage oil obtained by automatic thermal desorption (ATD) with that of produced by simultaneous distillation-extraction (SDE). The composition of these oils was quite different. The contents of linalool, linalyl acetate and sclareol obtained by ATD method were 3.9%, 15.2% and 74.2%, however the contents of the same compounds in the oil obtained by SDE method was 16.9%, 25.0% and 20.5%, respectively. Ronay et al. (17) compared composition of the clary sage oil and volatile concentrate obtained by supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) of clary sage. Authors determined 14.9% of linalool and 10.3% of linalyl acetate in the oil and 0.9% of linalool, 8.2% of linalyl acetate and 50.0% of sclareol in the extract. Foray et al. (18) found that the level of linalyl acetate in French clary sage oil was higher (81.1%) than that of normally occurs in commerce. Demirci et al. (19) reported linalool and linalyl acetate as the major components in the oil obtained by hydrodistillation of both wild and cultivated forms of S. sclarea. Pesic and Kankovic (20) analyzed clary sage flower oil through three different phases of herbal development: at full blossom, at seed formation, and at full seede maturity, in all parts of the inflorescence. This oil contained linalool and linalyl acetate 15.4% and 67.4%; 12.9% and 74.1%; 9.4% and 79.1%, respectively.