VARIABILITY OF ESSENTIAL OIL COMPOSITION IN SOME CULTIVATED LAMIACEAE SPECIES Istvn Lakatos, Beta Kll Corvinus University of Budapest,

Department of Plants H- 1118 Budapest, Villnyi str. 29-35. istvan.istvan@tvn.hu The family Lamiaceae consists of several important species accumulating essential oils. Literature referneces mention data merely about the drug and the organ assuring the drug and there is a lack of knowledge about the whole plants. At the same time it was proved that quantity and quality of the drug may change considerably as effect of environmental conditions and ontogenetical factors. Thus, it may have both theoretical and practical importance, too. We examined some economically significant, cultivated species: Hyssopus officinalis, Lavandula hybrida, Origanum vulgare, Salvia officinalis, Salvia sclarea, Satureja montana, Thymus vulgaris in 2006. In each case the whole shoots of the cultivated populations (in experimental field of Soroksr) were harvested at full flowering stage, separated into stem, leaf and flower samples, and dried at room temperature. The essential oil was distilled and analysed by GC-MS method (1). The results showed, that in each species the level of the oil was highest in the flowers. The leaves consisted -1/3 of it in thyme, sage, savory and hyssop, while they consisted much lower (1/10) levels in lavender, oregano and muscat sage. The stem contained measurable amounts of oil only in S. officinalis. The composition of the different organs was almost similar in case of hyssop, thyme and savory. Quantitative differences among them could be detected in the samples of oregano (e.g. -phellandrene, -terpinolene, caryophyllene) and sage (e.g. pinenes, -thujone, borneol), while considerable qualitative differences were described in muscat sage and lavender. In the latter case, the main compounds linalool, linalyl-acetate of the flowers are missing from the vegetative parts. In five of the seven species, a higher proportion of sesquiterpenes in the vegetative organs seems to be characteristic compared to the flowers. Similar behaviour has been found already for Asteraceae species (2).

References: 1. Lachenmeyer, D.W., Kuballa, T. (2007): J. Sci. Food and Agricult. 87: 2147-2151. 2. Arino, A. et al (1999): J. Essent. Oil Res. 11: 619-622.

This work was supported by GVOP-3.2.1.-2004-04-0134/3.0.