Omar Farouk Fahel*(1) Waleed Mansour(2) Fateh Khatib(3) and Bader AL-Deen Galab(1)
(1). Scientific Agricultural Research Center of Aleppo, General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research (GCSAR), Damascus, Syria.
(2). Department of Renewable Natural Resources and Ecology, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Aleppo, Aleppo, Syria.
(3). Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Aleppo, Aleppo, Syria.
(*Corresponding author: Eng. Omar Farouk Fahel. E-mail: ofaroukfa@gmail.com).
Received: 17/12/2016 Accepted: 29/01/2017
Abstract
This research was carried out to determine the quantity of essential oil extracted from myrtle Myrtus communis L leaves, by hydro distillation, and to identify the major and minor components, besides to determine its quantities in the essential oil by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry GC-MS. The samples were collected on November 2013 from eight different climatic locations (Aleppo, Zarzour, Al-zenea, Katra AL-Rayhan, Al- Rayhana, Kasab, Mashta al-Holou and Mosiaf). The quantity and composition of the essential oil were estimated on the basis of the leaves dry weight. Oil quantity varied between the studied genotypes from different locations, which range from 0.46 to 0.55 ml, with non-significant differences. Eighteen compounds were identified in myrtle essential oil, and there were significant differences in 13 compounds. 1,8-Cineole performed the highest rate (18.85%) compared with other components, followed by α-Pinene (16.93%). While the lowest percentage was (0.31%) of Myrcene. The results showed superiority of humid and sub-humid areas in having higher content of the monoterpenes hydrocarbon compounds, compared to the semi-arid areas. While semi-arid areas performed high content in oxygenated monoterpenes compounds. The total content of oil components ranged between (78.53 to 86.26) %. The proportion of the major and minor components reached (59.45-22.71%) respectively.
Key words: Essential oil, Myrtus communis L., Gas Chromatography, Oil components, Hydrodistillation.
Full paper in Arabic: PDF