Abstract
The purpose of this study was to compare the essential oil profiles of four South-Croatian Satureja species, as determined by GC/FID and GC/MS, with their DNA sequences for an internal transcribed spacer (ITS1-5.8S-ITS2) of the nuclear ribosomal DNA. A phylogenetic analysis showed that S. montana and S. cuneifolia, characterized by a similar essential oil composition, rich in the monoterpene hydrocarbon carvacrol, clustered together with high and moderate bootstrap support. On the contrary, S. subspicata and S. visianii, characterized by quite unique essential oil compositions, clustered together with the moderate bootstrap support. All four Croatian Satureja species clustered in one clade, separately from Macaronesian S. hortensis, although it had essential oil composition similar to that of S. montana and S. cuneifolia. This is the first report on the comparison between the phytochemical and DNA sequence data in Satureja species and useful contribution to the better understanding of interspecies relationships in this genus.
Highlights
The genus Satureja is comprised of some 200 species of often aromatic herbs and shrubs widely distributed in the Mediterranean Area, Asia and boreal America
In the Croatian flora nine species of genus Satureja have been reported, four of which are distributed in the Mediterranean region: Satureja montana L., S. cuneifolia Ten., S. subspicata Vis. and an endemic one S. visianii Šilić [1,2]
Twenty seven components, representing 92.85% of the oil, were identified in S. montana, 26 compounds, representing 89.8% of the oil in S. cuneifolia, 29 compounds, representing 93.2% of the oil in S. subspicata and 46 compounds was identified in S. visianii, which represents 92.2% of the oil
Summary
The genus Satureja is comprised of some 200 species of often aromatic herbs and shrubs widely distributed in the Mediterranean Area, Asia and boreal America. Due to presence of secondary metabolites such as flavonoids, steroids, essential oils, and tannins, Satureja species have been known for their healing properties for a long time and have been used as traditional folk remedies to treat various ailments such as cramps, muscle pains, nausea, indigestion, diarrhea and infectious diseases. Their antimicrobial activity against a wide spectrum of multidrugresistant pathogens has been confirmed [3,4,5,6,7,8]. The antiviral activity of savory’s essential oils against HIV has been documented [12]
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