Chemical compounds of essential oil in Satureja mutica and Satureja spicigera under dry farming: extraction, identification and comparison

Background &

The genus Satureja has 38 species distributed throughout the Mediterranean Area, Caucasus and West Asia. Satureja Mutica and Satureja spicigera is two Iranian native species that are distributed in the North of Iran. Essential oil (EO) of Satureja specious was used to some medicinal, food and industrial purposes. The aim of this study was to determine the chemical compounds of EO in Satureja mutica and Satureja spicigera under dry farming. Experimental: In early April, before the effective rain fall, the seedlings were transferred to the main land in mid-March. In the %50 flowering stage, plants were harvested and 100 g of plant dried powder used for EO extraction. The EO was extracted by water distillation method and chemical components of essential oils were identified and subsequently characterized using GC and GC/MS techniques.

The EO percent in S. spicigera was 2.52% in first year and 3.08% in second years. The EO percent of S. mutica was 2.04% in first year and 2% in second year. In creeping savory EO, thirteen compounds were identified that were formed the major constituents of EO (about 98.74% in first year and 97.53% in second year). The main compounds of essential oil (more than 5%) were thymol (28.60- 28.96%), carvacrol (23.18- 24.47%), ρ-cymene (21.00- 24.25%) and γ-terpinene (18.57-13.05%). In white savory EO, nine different chemical compounds were identified which made up more than about 95.32% of EO content in the first year and 97.48% in the second year. The major compounds of EO were Thymol (48.25-48.60%), γ-terpinene (20.84- 21.89%), ρ-cymene (12.34- 12.61%) and Carvacrol (6.71- 6.95%) respectively.Recommended applications/industries: Thymol and carvacrol contents in savory essential oil are the two important factors in pharmaceutical properties of savory EO. White and Creeping Savory can be used to pharmaceutical and food industries. Also we recommended the increase of EO content, thymol and carvacrol compounds in white and creeping savory using different cropping and breeding methods for further studies.