Re ceived: De cem ber 9 1995; Au gust 12, 1996 A composição química do óleo essencial das folhas e flores de dois acessos de Ocimum selloi Benth., cultivados na Universidade Fed eral de Viçosa foi analisada. Para o acesso A o componente prin ci pal foi identificado como estragol, o qual representa 94,95% e 92,54% do óleo das folhas e das flores, respectivamente. O óleo obtido das folhas e flores do acesso B é constituído de 65,49% e 66,18% de metil eugenol, respectivamente. Para ambos os acessos, diversos constituintes químicos, presentes em quantidades menores, foram identificados. As diferenças fenotípicas e químicas observadas en tre os dois acessos estudados indicam a existência de duas variedades quimicamente distintas de Ocimum selloi Benth.Chem i cal com po si tion anal y sis of the es sen tial oil from the leaves and flow ers of two acces sions of Ocimum selloi Benth, cul ti vated at the Fed eral Uni ver sity of Viçosa was car ried out. For ac cession A the ma jor com po nent was iden ti fied as estragole and rep re sented 94,95% and 92,54% of the oil from the leaves and flow ers re spec tively. For ac ces sion B, the oil from the leaves and flow ers was con sti tuted by 65,49% and 66,18% of methyleugenol, re spec tively. For both ac ces sions sev eral minor con stit u ents were also iden ti fied. The phenotypic and chem i cal dif fer ences ob served be tween these two ac ces sions sug gest the ex is tence of two chemicaly dis tinct va ri et ies for Ocimum selloi Benth.
Key words: Ocimum selloi, estragole, methyleugenol
In tro duc tionThe ge nus Ocimum (Labiatae) com prises 160 spe cies and is found through out the trop i cal and sub-tropical re gions of the world 1 . The larger ge netic di ver sity of this ge nus is found in Brazil 1 . Sev eral spe cies of this ge nus has com mer cial util ity as a source of es sen tial oil for the phar ma ceu tic, food, fla vour and perfumary in dus tries 2 .The spe cie Ocimum selloi Benth known as "alfavaquinha", "anis" and "elixir-paregorico", is orig i nated from South Amer ica, and is used in the tra di tional med i cine as antiinflammatory, an alge sic and antiespasmodic 3 .In the germplasm col lec tion kept at the Fed eral Uni ver sity of Viçosa, ac ces sions of this spe cie were found to have dif fer ent mor pho log i cal char ac ter is tics. The ac ces sion hav ing more vig orous plants, with pink co rol las and leaves with an anis-like odour was called "A". The ac ces sion formed by smaller plants, with darker co rol las, red dish ca lyx and leaves with out anis-like odour was called "B". Thus a chem i cal anal y sis of the es sen tial oil of these two ac ces sions was car ried out in or der to see if the phenotypic vari abil ity ob served was also pres ent at mo lec u lar level. In for ma tion about the chem i cal com po si tion of the oil could then be use ful in the clas si fi ca tion of these plants.
