Environment‐Related Variations of the Composition of the Essential Oils of Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) in the Balkan Penninsula

Abstract

Composition of the essential oils of Rosmarinus officinalis of ten populations from the Balkan Peninsula were determined by GC/FID and GC/MS. The main constituents were 1,8-cineole, camphor, α-pinene, and borneol. Multivariate statistical analysis (UPGMA cluster analysis and principal-component analysis (PCA)) revealed two major types of rosemary oil, i.e., 1,8-cineole and camphor-type, and two intermediate types, i.e., camphor/1,8-cineole/borneol type and 1,8-cineole/camphor type. The regression analyses (simple linear regression and stepwise multiple regression) have shown that, with respect to basic geographic, orographic, and 19 bioclimatic characteristics of each population, bioclimatic factor temperature of habitat represented the dominant abiogenetic factor, which, in chemical sense, led to differentiation of populations in the studied region. Also, the regression analysis have shown that some constituents of essential oils are independent of any single bioclimatic factors. However, some constituents display statistically significant correlations with some abiotic factors.

Chemotypic Characterization and Biological Activity of Rosmarinus officinalis

“…Chemotype 3, dominated by myrcene [89], has four samples in this analysis. Chemotype 4 is dominated by 1,8-cineole [36,38,93,94,95] and is comprised of 33 samples, and can be considered comparable to the cineoliferum chemotype described by Napoli and co-workers [39]. The fifth chemotype, represented by only one sample from Mexico [35], has nearly equal quantities of α-pinene, β-pinene, and camphene; the relatively high β-pinene concentration (12%) separates this sample from chemotype 1.…”

Chemical Composition, Antibacterial, Antibiofilm and Synergistic Properties of Essential Oils from Eucalyptus globulus Labill. and Seven Mediterranean Aromatic Plants

“…It is well‐known that the antimicrobial activity of EOs is related to some particular compounds, mainly terpenoids and phenylpropenes with the most active being phenols like carvacrol, thymol and eugenol . However, it is not always easy to obtain these components, since the composition and the percentage of major constituents produced by a plant species depend on the harvesting season, on the geographical and environmental conditions and even on the part of the plant from where they are obtained . It may precisely be due to a different chemical composition, both qualitative and quantitative, that EOs from the same plant species collected in different regions/countries have been reported to show different values of measurable activities.…”

Geographical and environment-related variations of essential oils in isolated populations of Thymus richardii Pers. in the Mediterranean basin

“…Secondary metabolites produced by these plants play important ecological and biological roles. The diversity of biological activities of the essential oils of the Lamiaceae may be a consequence of their rich chemical diversity, and in part explains the large number of studies investigating the chemical composition of plants in this family, and its relationship to fields including taxonomy, biogeography and medicine (for example, see S aez and Stahl-Biskup, 2002a;Giuliani and MaleciBini, 2008;Jassbi et al, 2012;Lakusic et al, 2012) and citations.…”