World of Sciences Journal

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Volume: 1

Issue: 5(2)

Pages: 59-65

Chemical Composition of Myrtle Essential Oil (Myrtus

Communis L.) in Gilane Gharb from Iran
Iman Bajalan *1, Mehrdad Akbarzadeh 2, Farzad Veysanlu 3
1. Islamic Azad University, Miyaneh Branch, Miyaneh, Iran.
2. Department of Agronomy, Islamic Azad University, Miyaneh branch,
Miyaneh, Iran.
3. Assistant Prof., Natural Resources Department, Islamic Azad University,
Borujerd Branch, Borujerd, Iran.

ABSTRACT

Myrtus communis L. or myrtle is one of the important medicinal plants in Iran.

This research is an attempt to analyze and identify the chemical composition of myrtle
Leave's growing wild in Gilane Gharb. Leaves were harvested from a random sample
of plants in 3 replications in September. Leaves of the young shoots were cut off, put in
plastic bags and dry in shadow for 10 days. Essential oil was extracted by hydrodistilling method using Clevenger apparatus, the oil was analyzed by GC and GC/MS.
According to this study, 25 different components in the essential oils were identified
that -pinen (27.87), cineol 1,8 (20.15) and Linalool (10.26) had the most essential oil
yield and represented 92.21% of the oil, respectively.

KEYWORDS:

Chemical Composition, Essential oil, Gilane Gharb, Myrtus Communis L.

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Chemical Composition of Myrtle in Gilane Gharb by Iman Bajalan et. al.

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Introduction
Of horizon always dragging mankind to discover its unknowns is nature and the invaluable material available in
it. Through long years, natural medicines, especially pharmaceutical plants were considered as the basic and even in
some cases the only way of treatment and at the sometime the ingredients available in them were being applied to
the pharmaceutics industry. Widespread use of medicinal plants could be for different reasons such as less side
effects, better acceptance by the patient because of traditional medicine advice and using by past generations, more
congruence with body's physiological performance and its less price (Azadmehr et al., 2010).
Myrtus communis L. or myrtle is an evergreen perennial shrub and fragrant. Its stems are very numerous,
ramified and branches are of leaves near one another and dispersed with a gray coverage and white flowers being
seen in humid and semi- humid areas (Messaoud et al., 2005 ; Naserian, 1997).
Great activities have been done regarding the pharmaceutical effects of this plant. Azad Ehyaee et al.(2010)
through examining antifungal effects of myrtle plants leaf extract in Roudbar on some of saprophytes and
dermatophytes fungi in in-vitro condition came to this conclusion that the hydro alcoholic extract of myrtle is
effective on Trichophayton menthagrophaytis, Epidermophayton phelokozom and Michrosporm kanis fungi. In
another research, Akin et al. (2010) studied antibacterial effect of myrtles essential oil and concluded that this plant
is of antimicrobial characteristics. In the other research also, the antibacterial, antioxidant effect and sterilization
activity of this plant has been examined (Tayoub et al., 2012; Hashemi et al., 2011; Rupesh Kumar et al., 2011).
With respect to countrys need for herbal medicines and also medicinal plants, especially highly- consumed
medicinal plants, like myrtle, using Countrys capacities and evaluating quantitative and qualitative performance of
essential oil of pharmaceutical variants in local habitats are necessary. For this reason, the most important issue in
this research is to identify and introduce the constitution compositions of this plant's essential oil habitat conditions
of Gelane Gharb being counted as one of myrtle's natural habitats in country.

Material and methods

By using dispersion map of myrtle in the province, Gilane Gharb region being one of the natural habitats of
myrtle in Kermanshah province was chosen for sampling. Then different geographical characteristics of the studied
region were measured. Longitude, latitude and height above the sea level were measured through GPS system. This
habitat of longitude 585866 and latitude 3776584. The average height above the sea level is 833 m. Sampling was
performed in the September from branch tips (stem's final 15 to 30 cm) of myrtle shrub. While sampling in each
region, sample was taken from the beginning, middle and end of the pile. Each sample also contained ten shrubs
considered healthy regarding the existence of past and diseases. To be certain about sampling, from each shrub three
sample was taken and mixed together. The sampling time was during the afternoon and between 13 to 15 o'clock.
After sampling, the drying operation was performed for myrtle leaves for ten days and in room temperature with
suitable ventilation. After this period, the leaves were separated from branch and the samples were individually
stored in plastic bags up to extraction. Inside each plastic bag, region name, collection place and its particular
number were registered. For essential oil extraction, the samples were crushed and then from each sample, 40 g was
poured in a 1-liter flask and 600 ml distilled water was added to it and extraction operation was performed for each
sample by Clevenger type for 3 hours. Extracting time was calculated from beginning of bubble formation in flask.
After ending each extraction period, at first blue phase was segregated from the essential oil through syringe, then
the essential oil containing some water was dewatered by dry sodium sulphate. Finally pure essential was poured in
to a dark container and its lid was fastened and characteristics were written on it and were put in the refrigerator.
After ending extraction stages, the amount of achieved essential oil was measured with the aid of Mirazadi et al.
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(2011) formal:
Efficiency percent = (Essential oil weight/plant's dry weight) 100
An Agilent model 6890 GC interfaced to a 5975 mass selective detector was used for mass spectral
identification of the components of the oils. HP-5MS capillary columns (30 m 0.25 mm 0.25 m film thickness) were used for GC. The oven temperature was maintained at 50C for 3 min then programmed to 290C at 15
min1then remind for 6 min. The carrier gas was helium, at a flow rate of 1.5 mL min1, and the injection volume
was 0.1 L. In mass spectrometry electron-impact ionization was performed at electron energy of 70 eV.
Injection mode was split (50:1). MS interface temperature was 280C, MS mode was EI, detector voltage was
1.66 Kv, mass range was 30 to 450 u, scan speed was 2.86 scans/s and interval was 0.01 min (20 Hz).
The constituents of the volatile oils were also identified by comparing their GC retention indices. A mixture of
aliphatic hydrocarbons (C8C24) in hexane (SigmaAldrich, St. Louis, USA) was injected as under the abovementioned temperature programmed to calculate the retention indices. Compound identification was based on the
comparison of retention indices using a MS library. The NIST spectrometer data bank was used to determine the
percentage composition of the compounds (Davies, 1998).

Result and discussion

The average weight efficiency of the achieved essential oil by using the above-mentioned formula in this
research was 5.43. Also through using GC and GC/MS, type and percentage of essential oil ingredients were
characterized. In general, 25 compounds equal to 92.21 percent of essential oil of this region were identified (Figure
1 and Table 1).
The chemical composition of the myrtle leaf essential oil belonging to the different regions and harvested at
different periods has been widely studied (Chalchat et al., 1998). Moreover, many phytochemical researches
investigated at the same time the essential oil composition of leaves and fruits as well as the other parts of M.
communis (Boelens and Jimenez, 1992).

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Fig. 1. Chromatograms of Myrtus communis L. essential oils in Gilane Gharb

The results of this research show that pinene (27.87), cineol 1,8 (20.15) and linalool (10.26) have devoted the
greatest percent of essential oil ingredients to themselves (table 1).
Rowshan et al. (2012) through examining chemical composition of leaf essential oil of myrtle shrub came to
this conclusion that -pinen (34), cineol 1,8 (23.2) and linalool (10.1) are the main composition of myrtle essential
oil. In the other research, Berka-Zougali et al. (2012) through examining essential oil of myrtle leaf came to this
conclusion that -pinen, cineol 1,8 and Limonen are the main composition of myrtle essential oil. According to the
research results of Mirazadi et al. (2011), the amount of essential oil efficiency of myrtle shrub in the region Cham
in Lorestan was 4.88 and Limonen (18.5), -pinen (13.32) and cineol 1,8 (10.58) constituted the main composition
of the essential oil.

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Tab.1. Detected essential oils composition of the Myrtus communis L. in Gilane Gharb.

Row

Volatile compound

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25

-Thujene
-Pinene
Camphene
-Pinene
-3-Carene
-Myrcene
-Phellandrene
-Terpinene
1,8-Cineole
-Ocimene
-Terpinene
-Terpinolene
Linalool
4-Terpineol
-Terpineol
2,6-Octadien
Linalyl Acetate
trans-Pinocarveol
-Terpinyl acetate
Neryl acetate
Geranyl acetate
Methyl eugenol
trans-Caryophyllene
-Humulene
Caryophyllene oxide
Identified compounds

Retention index

% Composition

932
942
954
981
1013
994
1007
1029
1040
1055
1064
1088
1108
1182
1197
1233
1262
1304
1356
1368
1386
1410
1429
1464
1597

0.54
27.87
0.15
0.88
0.63
0.3
0.14
0.13
20.15
0.13
0.59
0.41
10.26
0.67
7.64
0.31
6.17
0.13
4.04
0.23
4.87
1.48
1.57
1.35
1.57
92.21

The evaporation and perspiration factors and wind are of important roles in producing secondary metabolites of
plants. The height above the sea level, gradient percent and its direction, latitude, lands coverage, closeness to water
resources are directly and indirectly effective on secondary composition synthesis especially essential oil in plants
due to effect on other ecological factors. Soil characteristics such as soil texture, organic material, lime, saltiness and
acidity are environmental factors to be studied. Regarding the great value of pharmaceutical plant myrtle, knowing
its habitat conditions and identifying their chemical composition and percentage in other different parts of the
country seems necessary, although more information in this regard requires more research. Also regarding human
distraction done on myrtle shrub in Gilane Gharb, regeneration of this habitat is of great necessity.

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Acknowledgments
We must give our best thanks to Dr. Maisam Nasrollahpour, Ms. Maryam Shahidy and Ms. Zahra Mirazadi
for their cooperation in different stages of this research.

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