Essential Oils Composition, Antioxidant Activities and Phenolics Content of Wild and Cultivated Satureja bachtiarica Bunge Plants of Yazd Origin

Satureja bachtiarica Bunge, an endemic species with relatively wide distribution, is traditionally used as a medicinal and spice plant in Iran. Essential oils composition, antioxidant activities and phenolics content of wild and cultivated S. bachtiarica of Yazd origin were determined in this study. Hydrodistilled essential oils were analyzed by GC-FID and GC-MS. Folin-Ciocalteu and AlCl3 methods were served to determine total phenolics and flavonoids of methanol extracts, respectively. Antioxidant activities of the extracts were examined by DPPH and FRAP methods and their rosmarinic acid content was measured by using HPLC. The oil content of cultivated and wild plants was 1.8% and 0.9% v/w, respectively. Oxygenated monoterpens (78.3 - 79.5%) constituted the major fraction of essential oils with carvacrol (71.4% and 57.4% in cultivated and wild plants, respectively. p - Cymene (8.6 - 12.5%) was another major components of essential oils. Methanol extract from wild growing plants exhibited the higher levels antioxidant activities in both DPPH and FRAP methods (29.04 and 58.25 mg Trolox/g, respectively). This extract also contained the higher amounts of total phenolics (24.5 mg caffeic acid /g sample), total flavonoids (87.99 mg catechin /g sample) and rosmarinic acid (3.73 mg/g dry weight) in comparison to cultivated ones (16.2 mg caffeic acid /g sample, 40.55 mg catechin /g sample and 1.73 mg/g dry weight, respectively). Obtained results may be helpful for domestication of this plant and development of natural antioxidants for use in different industries.