Characterization of volatile organic compounds from six aromatic and medicinal plant species growing wild in North African drylands

Abstract

Aromatic and medicinal plants are large producers of secondary metabolites. Drylands of North Africa are characterized by high species richness of aromatic and medicinal plants which are still used by local populations in traditional medicine and culinary. The study aimed at characterizing the volatile organic compounds (VOC) of six wild plant species (Thymus algeriensis L., Artemisia campestris L., Juniperus phoenicea L., Teucrium polium L., Artemisia herba-alba Asso. and Rosmarinus officinalis L.) growing in arid regions of Algeria. This survey compared VOC composition between plants through the analysis of quantitative and qualitative similarity in order to detect the species that have more VOC, and also uncover the dominant VOC of each species for subsequent potential use in various fields such as the industry of food, cosmetics, therapeutics, etc. The micro-extraction of VOC was carried out using headspace-solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) method whereas Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) identified a total of 91 VOC: 39 VOC were identified in T. algeriensis (with dominance of β-myrcene = 13.78%, camphor = 12.29%, linalyl acetate = 9.11%); 37 VOC in A. campestris (β-farnesene = 14.17%, β-myrcene = 13.84%); 50 VOC in J. phoenicea (α-pinene = 27.18%); 42 VOC in T. polium (α-guaiene = 11.33%, trans-caryophyllene = 9.49%, γ-elemene = 9.25%), 45 VOC in R. officinalis (camphor = 17.46%, trans-caryophyllene = 14.83%); and 41 in A. herba-alba (α-thujone = 24.59%, β-thujone = 13.73%). The analysis of similarity revealed three different groups of species: the first group comprised T. algeriensis, R. officinalis, J. phoenicea and A. campestris, the second and third groups included one species, T. polium and A. herba-alba, respectively. VOC composition in A. herba-alba largely differed of other species. The screened species presented high VOC diversity, which indicates that ecological conditions of drylands incite plants to produce secondary metabolites that can be exploited for various purposes.