Qualitative and quantitative changes of essential composition in the flowers of some populations of Elaeagnus angustifolia

Elaeagnus angustifolia L. is a member of the Elaeagaceae family; different parts of it, especially fruits have been used for the treatment of several diseases in traditional medicine. The aim of this study was to isolate and determine essential oil composition of flowers of E. angustifolia collected from different ecological areas of East-Azarnayjan in Iran.
In this experimental study, the essential oils of the flower were isolated by hydrodistillation method and analyzed by GC and GC/MS.
The number of compounds in the essential oil isolated from the population of Ahar, Marand and Hashtroud were 22, 17 and 14, respectively. The major component of all of the populations was ethylcinnamate; Ahar (47.59%), Marand (69.99%) and Hashtroud (85.49%). It was observed that the oil number of E. angustifolia decreases from 22 to 14 when the altitude increases from 1344-1750 m.
Chemical composition of the essential oils of E. angustifolia L. such as esters and aromatic acids contents were increased while the ketone content was decreased with increasing altitude.