Chamomile essential oil quality after postharvest separation treatments

Abstract

Ecological conditions of the growing areas, growing practices as well as harvest and postharvest processing influence the yield and quality of chamomile. The aim of this research was to determine the influence of chamomile separation methods, as postharvest treatments, on the essential oil quality and content, with a view to improve current primary processing of this valuable medicinal plant. In order to explain the structure of laboratory data that would give deeper assessment of similarities among various samples of chamomile essential oil, PCA was employed. Tested results showed that separation of chamomile plant material, as postharvest and pre-drying treatment, had significant influence on the number of identified compounds in the chamomile essential oil. The highest content of individual essential oil compounds had chamomile flowers with short stems, especially a-bisabolol, chamazulene, Z-spiroether and E-b-famesene. In the essential oil obtained from chamomile flowers with long stems, content of a-bisabolol and chamazulene were significantly lower, while E-b-famesene and Z-spiroether contents were significantly higher. Furthermore, in the essential oil obtained from chamomile plant material without separation, the lowest content of abisabolol and Z-spiroether, and the highest content of E-b-farnesene were recorded. The correlation analysis was performed to investigate the likeness in the amounts of the active compounds of essential oil from differently processed chamomile samples. All these results indicate the importance of precise and controlled postharvest treatments, since it clearly affects the essential oil quality and content in the primary processing of this valuable medicinal plant.

Effect of Drying Methods on Chemical Profile of Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla L.) Flowers

“…The most abundant volatile compound found in chamomile flowers was Spiroether Z (ZSPI). Similar results were obtained by Aćimović et al (2021) [38]. ZSPI did not change significantly in SUN, SH, and KK60 samples (34-36%), but decreased significantly after flower drying at high temperature (D sample, to 28%).…”

“…GC-MS analysis of chamomile essential oil identified 49 compounds in total (Figure 5). Salamon et al (2023) [37] recorded between 23 and 43 chemical components in the essential oil extracted from chamomile flowers in different sites in Albania, and Aćimović et al (2021) [38] between 47 and 57 chemical components in essential oil. The most abundant compounds in all samples are α-bisabolol oxide A (ABOLA) (19.6 to 24.3%), bisabolol oxide B (BIOB) (19.3 to 23.2%), and β-farnesene E (BFAR) (15.9 to 25.5%).…”

Effect of Different Postharvest Methods on Essential Oil Content and Composition of Three Mentha Genotypes

“…'Multimentha', in contrast to the first harvest, contained pulegone as the second most abundant compound with 18.55 ± 1.93% (sD) and 20.27 ± 1.35% (sF) and then the third highest fraction menthol isomer B with 9.26 ± 0.22% (sD) and 10.34 ± 0.27% (sF). Furthermore, it was hypothesized that the EO might be of higher quality when leaves and stems are separated prior to drying than after drying, because this would remove the water from the separated leaves more quickly and there would be less respiration and enzymatic processes [24]. The drying method impacts the phytochemical profile (e.g., in Lavendula angustifolia Mill.)…”

“…In their experiment, chamomile was dried immediately after harvest or separated between flowers and stems before drying. The study showed that the separation of chamomile in flowers and stems before drying had a significant effect on the content and composition of the EOs [24].…”

“…The highest EO content (1.1%) and the highest percentage of piperitone (71.7%), the main compound, were found after drying with the condensation drying oven, the second highest in the shade drying process (0.9%), and the lowest after laboratory oven drying (0.6%). After drying with the laboratory oven, the most EO compounds were found (24), the second most in the treatment with the condensation oven (20), and the lowest number after shade drying (18). However, pulegone (1.4%) was identified only in the EO from the Mentha dried in the laboratory oven, while in the EO produced in the shade drying experiment, most pharmacologically active compounds, like menthol, were present [22].…”