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Essential Oil of Acinos hungaricus (Simonkai) Silic, Lamiaceae(a)

Journal of Essential Oil Research: JEOR, Jan/Feb 2004 by Chalchat, Jean-Claude, Maksimovic, Zoran A, Petrovic, Silvana D, Gorunovic, Momcilo S

Abstract

Analysis of Acinus hungaricus oil isolated by water distillation of flowering herb was performed using GC and GC/ MS. Forty-one constituents were identified, representing 88.8% of total oil with gennacrene D (46.7%) as the most prominent constituent.

Key Word Index

Acinos hungaricus, essential oil composition, germacrene D.

Introduction

Acinos hungaricus (Simonkai) Silic Lamiaceae is a perennial or biennial, herbaceous plant species. Its range covers lower mountain regions (up to 1200 m of altitude) of Asia Minor, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. The plant favors open habitats, growing mostly in dry, calcareous and rocky soil in mountain meadows and pastures, and constituting several predominantly xerotherrnous plant associations. In addition, A. hungaricus possesses a wide ecological amplitude. In Serbia it is widespread (1).

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Acinos hungaricus is predominantly non-aromatic. This may be the main reason for a dearth of available literature data concerned with the chemical composition of its essential oil. In this paper, following our research on the composition of oils from Yugoslav aromatic plant species, we present results that should reduce this scarcity and improve knowledge of some well-known and widespread, but still insufficiently investigated, plant species.

Experimental

Plant material: The aerial parts of A. hungaricus were collected from the periphery of Deliblato Sands, near the town of BeIa Crkva (northeast of Serbia) during the full-flowering period (July 1998). The herb was dried under laboratory conditions in a shaded and well-ventilated place. A voucher specimen was deposited in the herbarium of the University of Belgrade.

Oil isolation: The oil was isolated by water distillation in a Clevenger-type device according to the Proceeding III of the Yugoslav Pharmacopoeia (2).

Analysis: GC analysis was performed on a DELSI 12] C instrument equipped with a WCOT fused silica capillary column (25 m × 0.3 mm, stationary phase CP WAX 51, film thickness 0.15 µm) using an FID and N^sub 2^ as carrier gas. The temperature programming was as follows: 5 min initial hold at 50°C, then from 50°-210°C at 2°C/min. GC/MS analyses were performed on an instrument as above, equipped with a WCOT fused silica capillary column (50 m × 0.3 mm, stationary phase CP WAX 51, film thickness 0.25 µm) and coupled to a VG 70 mass spectrometer. Conditions: oven temperature programmed 50°-230°C at 3°C/min; carrier gas He; ionization energy 70 eV. Constituents were identified by co-injection of the oil with reference substances and by comparison of their spectral data.

Results and Discussion

The herb of A. hunguricus contained only 0.02% of oil (average of 10 runs, expressed in g per 100 g of dried plant material). The isolated oil was a yellowish; at room temperature the product was easily liquefying, with a mild and aromatic fragrance.

By GC and GC/MS, 41 constituents (88.8% of total oil) were identified (Table I). The most abundant component was germacrene D (46.7%), along with [beta]-bourbonene (6.6%) and 1,8-cineole (5.6%).

Acinos alpinus (L.) Moench. is an aromatic plant species believed to be a close relative of A. hungaricus. According to available data, recent research on the chemical composition of A. alpiniis oil showed that gennacrene A, epi-bicyclosesquiphellandrene, [beta]-elemene and [beta]-caryophyllene were its principal components (3). In our oil, the first two compounds were not even detected. The second two-[beta]-elemene and [beta]-caryophyllene-were merely present at 2.9% and 2.2%, respectively. Although pulegone was reported to be one of the major constituents of Acinos sp. oils from Turkey (4), it also was not detected in our oil.

a This paper lias been presented, in part, as a poster at the 31s1 International Symposium on Essential oils in Hamburg, Germany.

References

1. C. Silic, Monography of Satureja L., Calamintha Miller, Micromeria Bentham, Acinos Miller and Clinopodium L. genera in the Flora of Yugoslavia, pp. 296-316, Museum of the Natural History of Bosnia Hercegovina, Sarajevo (1979).

2. Pharmacopoea Jugoslavia, editio Quarta. National Institute for Health Protection, Belgrade (1984).

3. H.D. Skaltsa, D.M. Lazarisand A.E. Loukis, Composition of the essential oil of Acinos alpinus (L.) Moench. from Greece. J. Essent. oil Res., 11, 35-37 (1999).

4. K.H.C. Baser, N. Kirimerand G. Tumen, Pulegone-rich essential oils of Turkey. J. Essent. oil Res., 10, 1-8 (1998).

Jean-Claude Chalchat*

Chimie defi Huiles Essentielles, Universite Biaise Pascal de Clermont, Campus des Cezeaux, 63177 Auhiere Cedex, France

Zoran A. Maksimovic, Silvana D. Petrovic and Momcilo S. Gorunovic

Institute ofPharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Belgrade, Vojvode Stepe 450, 11221 Belgrade, Yugoslavia

* Address for correspondence

Received: May 2001

Revised: july 2001

Accepted: August 2001

Essential Oil of Acinos hungaricus (Simonkai) Silic, Lamiaceae(a)

Journal of Essential Oil Research: JEOR, Jan/Feb 2004 by Chalchat, Jean-Claude, Maksimovic, Zoran A, Petrovic, Silvana D, Gorunovic, Momcilo S

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