Ontogenesis and harvest time are crucial for high quality lavender – Role of the flower development in essential oil properties

Comparative Evaluation of the Essential Oil of the New Ukrainian Lavandula angustifolia and Lavandula x intermedia Cultivars Grown on the Same Plots

“…Figure 2 indicates that most results were between 39 and 45%. This is in line with the values reported in the literature 1.7–62.7% [ 11 , 13 ] but a little higher than their average, with a range of 25–40%. The linalool content in the studied lavender oil was higher than existing ISO norms for lavandin oils and close to ISO spike oil specifications [ 28 , 29 , 30 ].…”

“…The other top constituents in the investigated oils were terpineols: terpinen-4-ol (1.54–5.35%, with a median of 2.12%) and α -terpineol (0.58–3.42%, with a median of 1.83%). These content values were higher than ISO standards but similar or even lower than many results published by other researchers [ 11 , 13 ]. All the other main or regulated components that were not described above are presented in Table 5 and Table 6 .…”

“…Another compound, borneol, constituted around 7% of the studied oil, which was much larger than in the previously mentioned standards and values reported for lavandin oils of French origin. Nevertheless, multiple authors have reported similar or higher values, e.g., 6.4–8.2% for “Grosso” and 5.8–6.9% for ‘Grappenhall’ cultivated in Hungary, 7.1% for lavandin of Romanian origin or even higher in the case of Macedonian (13.7–16.7%) and Iranian origin (17.1–26.4%) [ 11 , 13 , 32 ]. The investigated oils contained on average 5% of eucalyptol (the exact value is not given due to coelution with limonene).…”

“…Interestingly, linalyl acetate content was also low, though only for the green bud stage. For more mature flowering stages, the content was around 20% [ 13 ]. Therefore, it is difficult to judge the determining factor, and oil composition is the result of plant genotype and many known and unknown factors.…”

“…Other significant lavender EO (essential oil) components include terpinen-4-ol, α -terpineol, lavandulol, lavandulyl acetate, β -ocimene, eucalyptol, and borneol. Regarding the first two terpineols, their content in true lavender oil is 2–14 and 2–9% and 0.4–16% and 2–10% in lavandin oil, respectively [ 11 , 13 ]. Terpinen-4-ol is usually more abundant in LA oils than α -terpineol.…”