Comparison of phytochemicals of essential oils in ecotypes of Teucrium polium subsp. polium in Fars province

Teucrium polium L. is a native plant of Iran that is used in traditional medicine. This study was designed to investigate the chemical composition of the essential oil in seven T. polium ecotypes with a range of 800 to 2500 altitudes in Fars province. To perform this study, the aerial parts of T. polium were collected in flowering stages and dried under laboratory conditions. Then, the essential oils were obtained by hydrodistillation method and analyzed by GC/MS. The results showed that the most important constituents of essential oils varied in different habitats and the main components were germacrene- D (22.6–6.7%), bicyclogermacrene (15.1–4.4%), α-pinene (16.6–0.8%), β-Pinene (9.2–0.8%), myrcene (9.5–1.7%) and (E)-Caryophylle (13.9– 4.2%). Comparison of the major constituents of the essential oils showed that the ecotypes collected from higher altitude areas had higher sesquiterpene than monoterpenes. Data analysis of the main constituents of the essential oils using Minitab software led to the identification of three distinct groups, indicating the existence of intra-species phytochemical diversity in this plant.