Investigation on essential oil contenet and ciomposition of Pimpinella aurea DC. seeds from three habitats of Tehran Province

Pimpinella aurea DC. is one of the most abundant perennial species from Pimpinella genus in Iran، distributed in northwest، west، center، northeast، and southeast of Iran. This aromatic species contains essential oil with antimicrobial effect. In this research، to study the quality and quantity of seed essential oil of Pimpinella aurea and also the effect of seed size on essential oil content and composition of Pimpinella aurea، seeds were collected from three localities in Tehran province (Tochal، Vardavard and Lavasanat) and were، after drying، separated by sieves having mesh sizes of 20، 25 and 30. All samples were subjected to hydro-distillation، individually، for obtaining their essential oils. The mean oil yields for Tochal seeds were calculated to be 4. 01%، 3. 20% and 1. 12% for 20، 25 and 30 meshes، respectively. These values were 5. 69%، 3. 20% and 1. 94% for the samples from Vardavard and 3. 21%، 2. 70% and 1. 85% for Lavasanat samples. Results showed that the oil yield decreased remarkably with decreasing the size of the seeds. The essential oils were analyzed by GC and GC/MS for the identification of their chemical composition. β-bisabolene was identified as the main component in the oils collected from different habitats (57. 2-83. 6%). The other major component was epoxy allo-aromadendrene (3. 9-30. 6%). According to the obtained results، seed size had no considerable effect on essential oil composition. In addition، more oil yield and β-bisabolene content were recorded for the seeds collected from Vardavard (with a warmer and dryer habitat).