Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• F. Askari
• V. Mozaffarian
• E. Parsa

Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Centaurea zuvandica(Sosn.) Sosn.is a perennial species, distributed in North and North-West of Iran. The shoots of C. zuvandica were collected at flowering stage from Firoozkoh, Ghaemshahr and Chaloos Road, in late June 2011.  The plant parts were dried at ambient temperature and milled to small particles. The essential oils of stem as well as leaves and inflorescences were obtained by hydrodistillation and were analyzed by GC and GC/MS. Essential oil yield of different organs varied (w/w dried weight) between 0.02% to 0.07%. The major constituents were: spathulenol (>28.8%), thymol (>21.7%), caryophyllene oxide (>20.9%), linalool (>19.5%), germacrene D (>16.3%) and carvacrol (>6.8%). According to the obtained results, a high variability was found for the major essential oil constituents among three studied localities and even among different organs of a locality. The major constituent in the stem and leaf oils, collected from Chaloos Road and Firoozkoh localities, was thymol (17.8% and 21.7%). Linalool (19.5% and 9.7%) was the major constituent in inflorescence oils, collected from Chaloos Road and Firoozkoh localities. For the samples collected from Ghaemshahr, caryophyllene oxide (20.9%) was identified as the major constituent in stem and leaf oil.

Keywords

• Centaurea zuvandica (Sosn.) Sosn
• chemical composition
• spathulenol
• Thymol
• caryophyllene oxide
• linalool