Essential Oil Composition of Species in the GenusAchillea

Abstract

Based on the present knowledge of essential oil composition of species belonging to the genus Achillea the factors, which may influence the composition with regard to plant biology, production and application are discussed.According to studies from the last 15 years, a mean of 54 compounds have been identified in samples of different species. Among them, the largest number of components (149 compounds) were found in the oils of A. millefolium, A. pannonica and A. collina. The monoterpenes, 1,8-cineole, camphor, borneol, α-and β-pinenes are among the five most abundant components. Beside chamazulene, the most frequently identified sesquiterpenes are β-caryophyllene and its oxide. The presence of chamazulene seems to remain a characteristic, but it is not ubiquitous to the members of the Millefolium group. The heritance mechanism of sesquiterpenes, especially chamazulene, seems to be established, while we know relatively less about the genetic regulation of the monoterpene compounds. During ontogenesis, major differences could be found between the stages before and after flower development. The phenological phase assuring the highest level of azulenes seems to be during flowering. Composition and compositional changes of an essential oil within the Achillea genus in different plant organs seems to depend on the species. In several cases a dominance of sesquiterpene components above the monoterpenes was found in the vegetative organs. The most important difference seems to be the lack or low amount of chamazulene as artefact in the extracts compared to the distillates.

Screening of yarrow (Achillea millefolium Agg.) populations in Serbia for yield components and essential oil composition

“…Plants from this genus are, in wide diversity, spread in Serbian territory, where 19 species have been recognized (Gajić, 1975). Regarding pharmacological properties, the most important species belong to the Millefolium group, which is characterized by wide morphological, cytological and chemical diversity, and it has been botanically systemized in few subspecies whose chromosome numbers are ranging from diploid (2n=18) to octaploid (8n = 72) forms (Nemeth, 2005). Therefore A. millefolium L. sensu lato is the developing evolutionary taxon currently considered as an aggregate of 12 species (Saukel and Langer, 1992).…”

Leaf Essential Oil of Juniperus oxycedrus L. (Cupressaceae) Harvested in Northern Tunisia: Composition and Intra‐Specific Variability

“…Moreover, it was also reported that the essential oil yield and its composition were related to genetic and climatic factors, soil conditions, phase of growth (vegetative or flowering stage), and part of the plant [16]. Thus, the study of the chemical composition of essential oils in relation to environmental factors might provide information on how to determine the chemical polymorphism of this genus in Tunisia.…”

“…The seasonal fluctuation of this chemical class showed a progressive decrease from winter to summer. The most important epoxide was 13-epimanoyl oxide (16), which reached the maximum content (6.95%) in the oil from Hawaria leaves harvested in January. In contrast, for all four locations, manoyl oxide was detected only in oils from leaves harvested in spring.…”

Essential oil composition of two yarrow taxonomic forms

“…However, chamazulene was found within the three principal constituents only in a small part of investigated A. millefolium essential oils [10][11][12][13][14]. The first predominant components in the oils were determined as sabinene, β-pinene, β-phellandrene, 1,8-cineole, borneol, ocimene, artemisia ketone, linalool, α-and β-thujone, camphor, borneol, fenchyl acetate, bornyl acetate, fragranol, lavandulyl acetate, ascaridole, caryophyllene, caryophyllene oxide, germacrene D, α-copaene, α-and β-bisabolol, eudesmol and δ-cadinol [4,11,12,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]. However, the composition of essential oils was investigated mainly for the yarrow oils that are produced by all aerial parts of the plant.…”