Chemical Composition of the Essential Oil from Flower, Stem and Leaves of Astragalus schahrudensis Bge. from Iran

Abstract

The essential oils obtained by hydrodistillation of the flowers, stems and leaves of Astragalus schahrudensis Bge, endemic in Iran, were analazed by GC and GC/MS. Seventeen compounds representing 96.6% of the flower oil of A. schahrudensis were identified; among them, germacrene D (47.6%) and germacrene B (17.8%) were the major ones. The stem oil was characterized by higher amount of β-selinene(29.4%),δ-guaiene (21.7%), α-guaiene (13.4%) and α-selinene (10.9%) among the 14 components comprising 94.6% of the total oil detected. Eighteen compounds representing 97.3% of the leaf oil of the plant were identified; among them, α-pinene (33.8%) bornyl acetate (14.2%), limonene (12.2%) and α-fenchyl acetate (10.0%) were the major ones.

The flower and stem oils of A.schahrudensis consisted mainly of sesquiterpenes, while in leaf oil monoterpenes predominated over sesquiterpenes.

Key Word Index:

• Astragalus schahrudensis
• Papilionaceae
• essential oil composition
• germacrene D
• germacrene B
• β-selinene
• δ-guaiene
• α-guaiene
• α-selinene
• α-pinene
• bornyl acetate
• limonene
• α-fenchyl acetate