Evaluation of quantitative and qualitative changes in essential oil of five accessions of Satureja mutica Fisch. in field conditions

The genus Satureja L. (Lamiaceae) contains 16 species which are distributed all over Iran and 10 of which are endemics. Investigation on essential oils content and composition of five accessions of S. mutica Fisch. a native species in Iran, have been subject to our research. The seeds of five accessions of S. mutica were collected from their natural habitats in Khorasan (2 accessions), Mazandaran and Gilan (2 accessions) provincesin this study. The seeds were planted inside the green house, and then the seedlings were transplanted into the field in Grizeh-Sanandaj research station in 2010 and 2011. An experiment was undertaken to determine the oil production of S. mutica in complete randomized block design with three replications. The aerial parts of each accession were collected in full flowering stages in three consecutive years. The essential oils were obtained by hydro-distillation and analyzed by GC and GC/MS. The oil yields were increased for 5 accessions in the second year. The main constituents of the essential oils during three consecutive years were thymol (51.7 and 3.5%), p-cymene (39.0 and 9.8%), γ-terpinene (23.2 and 10.0%) and carvacrol (49.7 and 3.6%). Although the main components of all the oils were similar, but there were some differences between the percentages of major components and also minor constituents. It is remarkable that the most important phenolic compound, thymol, was decreased in the oils in the second year for most accessions.