Chemical composition of the essential oil of Stachys menthifolia Vis.

Abstract

Stachys menthifolia Vis. (Lamiaceae) is an endemic species from the Balkan Peninsula spread throughout Albania, Greece, Montenegro, and Croatia. This article presents the first investigation of the essential oil composition of this species from Croatia. Aerial parts of the plant were collected from three different natural habitats in the region of Biokovo Mountain. The studied populations showed similarity in qualitative, but not in quantitative, composition of their essential oils. Hydrodistilled volatile oil obtained from the plant material of S. menthifolia was subjected to gas chromatographic analysis coupled to mass spectrometry. More than 100 compounds were identified in the three samples, representing 86.8–90.8% of the total oil. The terpene profile of S. menthifolia is characterized by a high content of oxygenated sesquiterpenes (48.4–58.9%) and diterpene hydrocarbons (3.5–25.2%), with 8-α-acetoxyelemol (6.9–21.3%), abietatriene (3.5–21.1%), and 4′-methoxyacetophenone (4.5–17.0%) as the main constituents.

Keywords::

• Stachys menthifolia Vis.
• 8-α-acetoxyelemol
• abietatriene
• essential oil composition
• GC-MS

Acknowledgement

Part of this article was presented as a poster at the 14th International Symposium on Separation Sciences “New Achievements in Chromatography,” Primošten, Croatia, 30th September–3rd October 2008.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest.