Analysis of Aroma and Phenolic Components of Selected Achillea Species

Abstract

Dried flowers and leaves of four different Achillea species grown wild in several provinces of Iran, including one species collected from three different locations of Isfahan province were analyzed for the headspace volatile components, total phenolics (TP) and tartaric esters (TE). Capillary gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) combined with a purge and trap method was used for quantification of aroma components. Over 70 compounds were determined in the samples. Flower samples from all species contained 2-methyl butanal, alpha-pinene, alpha-thujene, camphene, hexanal, beta-pinene and 1,8-cineole; however, the major constituents of the aerial parts were determined as alpha-pinene, camphene, DL-limonene and 1,8-cineole. The largest number of aroma components were found in Achillea tenuifolia Lam. and Achillea millefolium L. In all species, except A. millefolium, the leaves contained more TP and TE than flowers. However, A. wilhelmsii from Semirom in Isfahan province showed the highest values for TP and TE.

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium L.): A Neglected Panacea? A Review of Ethnobotany, Bioactivity, and Biomedical Research1

“…These studies have demonstrated that quantitative and qualitative variations in chemical content are useful to distinguish species, particularly the diploid species (Benedek et al 2007a), which is unsurprising if higher-ploidy taxa are usually of allopolyploid origin. Species outside the A. millefolium complex, though chemically distinctive, may have antimicrobial activity comparable to that of A. millefolium (e.g., Dokhani et al 2005;Stojanović et al 2005;Unlü et al 2002). If taxa with very different chemical compositions are bioactive, bioactivity in these taxa is unlikely to be due to any single molecule.…”

Antioxidant, Antimicrobial and Genotoxicity Screening of Hydro-alcoholic Extracts of Five Serbian Equisetum Species

“…Plant extracts preparation for all assays and the measurements of the total phenols were done according to the published procedure [12]. Briefly, dried and milled plant material (3.0 g) was weighed and transferred to a heavy duty Waring blender equipped with a stainless steel waterjacketed jar.…”

“…Total phenolics were measured using a modified version of Glories' method [12]. In a test tube, 0.25 ml of 0.1% HCl in 95% ethanol, 4.55 ml of 2% HCl and 0.25 ml of standard solutions of chlorogenic acid (Sigma Chemical Co., St. Louis, USA) or filtered extract made up in 95% ethanol was added, mixed by vortex and allowed to stand for approximately 15 min before reading the absorbance at 280 nm.…”

Application of gas-liquid chromatography for standardization of herbal raw materials and herbal drugs

“…Achillea millefolium was studied by GC [26][27][28][29][30][31][32], therewith this herb was a component of an elixir [26]. Orav et al [28] compared the compositions of the essential oils of Achillea millefolium collected in different European countries.…”