ANALYSIS OF BIOLOGICALLY ACTIVE ESSENTIAL OIL COMPONENTS OF CHAMOMILES IN HUNGARY (IN VIVO - IN VITRO)

Abstract

We studied the essential oil production of cultivated (BK-2, Degumil) and wild chamomile populations of 4 typical chamomile-rich regions of Hungary. We examined the essential oil composition of flowers, herbs (stem plus leaves) and roots using GC and GC/MS methods. Among cultivated species, the Hungarian BK-2 contains more chamazulene in its essential oil than the German Degumil type, which is mainly cultivated for its α-bisabolol. Both components have important antiinflammatory activities. Wild populations can be easily distinguished from cultivated ones by their high amount of bisaboloides, particularly the flower of Szabadkigyos wild type, which contained on average 48 % of the biologically active (-)-α-bisabolol. The regional wild chamomile samples mentioned above have already been examined previously in our Institute. We found it interesting to compare the content of biologically active components, at the same conditions, of presently promising populations with the results obtained 20 years ago from the same species. While the content of the essential oil of rural Szabadkigyos wild type remained unchanged, there was a trend of the essential oil components towards the therapeutically important compounds. The amount of (-)-α-bisabolol in Szabadkigyos mounted up to a 3-fold increase and we measured a doublefold increase of chamazulene content in BK-2 compared with samples 20 years ago. We can conclude that although a change was observed in the essential oil content and also in the proportion of different components, the fundamental characteristics of the oils remained the same. To keep the genom of Szabadkigyos wild type having high (-)-α-bisabolol content, we used biotechnological methods. The sterile roots of organised culture contained also β-eudesmol, wich was firstly identified from the intact roots by us. Our gas chromatographical and mass-spectroscopical studies showed that sterile chamomile cultures generated the most important terpenoid and polyin compounds characteristic of the mother plant. We identified berkheyaradulene, α-selinene, geranyl-isovalerate and cedrol as new components in these sterile cultures. INTRODUCTION In Hungary, chamomile, (Chamomilla recutita, syn.:Matricaria recutita [L.] Rauschert; Asteraceae) is one of the most common medicinal plants. Its importance is widely known in both official and folk medicines. Chamomile owes its therapeutical activity to different groups of effective substances, which make up the complex effect of the drug (Chamomillae anthodium). Essential oils are of greatest importance among all effective substances. The essential oil content of plant parts under and above ground depends on different chemotypes (Hansel et al., 1992). According to the bisabololoxide content, commercial chamomile populations are classified as types of bisabolol, bisabololoxide A and B, and bisabolonoxide (Schilcher, 1973, 1987). During the ontogenesis the essential oil content changes, reaching a maximum in the flower just before flowering (0.3-1.5%), Proc. Int. Conf. on MAP Eds. J. Bernath et al. Acta Hort. 597, ISHS 2003