Essential Oil Composition of Some Wild and Cultivated Medicinal Plants

Thymbra species are abundantly found in the wild, and also Tanacetum densum (Lab.) Schultz Bip. subsp. amani Heywood is an endemic plant of the Southeastern Anatolian, Turkey. Air-dried aerial parts of the plants were submitted to hydrodistillation, for 3 hours, using a Clevenger-type apparatus. Cultivated and wild Thymbra spicata var. spicata, Thmybra sintenisii Bornm. & Aznav. and Tanacetum densum subsp. amani species were compared for their essential oil constituents using GC/MS analysis. The results showed that the major constituents of essential oil of both Thymbra species were carvacrol, gamma-terpinene, p-cymene, beta-caryophyllene, myrcene and alpha-phellandrene. Essential oil of cultivated T. spicata contained lower carvacrol percentage (67.91%) compared to the carvacrol percentage of cultivated species (72.56%). Conversely a-pinene percentage of cultivated T. sintenisii was higher compared to wild forms. P-cymene was found second major constituent in the essential oil T. sintenisii. Tanacetum oil was pale greenish and had a pleasant odour, with a yield of 0.1% (v/w) for wild form and 0.15% for cultivated form. Twenty-three components representing 84.53-93.41% of the oil were characterized, of which bisabolone oxide (25.62%), carvacrol (26.73%), isoborneol (10.07%), borneol (14.05%), beta-panasinsene (8.95%), eucalyptol (10.13%) and camphor (4.71%) were the main compounds.