Composition of essential oils of leaves, stems, and roots of Thymus kotschyanus VAR. pseuderiophorus growing wild in Iran

Abstract

98.4%, 20 constituents representing 99.3%, and 24 compound representing 98.3% of the leaf, stem, and root oils, respectively. As can be seen from the above information, the oils from leaves, stems, and roots of T. kotschyanus var. pseuderiophorus Rech. f.p.p are rich in oxygenated monoterpenes (79.2%, 84.6%, 80.7%) and contain small amount of monoterpene hydrocarbons and very few sesquiterpenoids. Comparison of these results with previous investigations on oils of the genus Thymus showed that they were also dominated by monoterpenes. The dominant compound in the oil of T. serrulatus 3, T. carnosus 4, T. transcaspicus 5, T. vulgaris 6, T. daenensis 7, T. fallax 8 and T. eriocalyx 9 was thymol (49.0%, 36.1%, 56.4%, 39.1%, 73.9%, 65.9%, and 43.1%, respectively). The oil of T. serpyllum consisted mainly of -terpinene (21.9% and 22.7%), p-cymene (21.1% and 20.7%), and thymol (18.7% and 18.7%) before flowering and at the full flowering stage, respectively 10. In the essential oil of T. citriodorus cultivated in Iran, geraniol (54.4%), geranial (13.9%), and neral (10.1%) were the main constituents 11. The major compounds in T. persicus oil were found to be carvacrol (39.0% and 27.1%), geraniol (15.7% and 9.4%), p-cymene (7.5% and 10.2%), and thymol (6.5% and 11.9%) before flowering and at the full flowering stage, respectively 12. In another study, pulegone (18.7%), isomenthone (17.8%), and thymol (14.9%) were the main constituents in T. kotschyanus oil, and the main compounds in the T. pubescens oil were found to be carvacrol (32.1%), thymol (19.1%), and -terpineol (14.6%) 13. Seventy-eight components were identified comprising 88.0% and 91.3% of the total components in the oils, respectively. 1,8-Cineole (21.5%) was the dominant compound in T. haussknechtii oil and thymol (47.5%) was the main component in the oil of T. kotschyanus var. kotschyanus 16.