The composition of the essential oil of the aerial parts of Artemisia lobelii during four stages of the growing cycle (full foliation stage, pre-bloom, full bloom and post-bloom stage; between June and October) were studied by GC/MS.
The plant material was collected on location, Gradište-Sićevačka gorge, Serbia. Voucher specimens are deposited in herbarium of Dr Novica Ranđelović. Dried and milled drug was hidrodistilled for 2.5 h by using Clevenger-type apparatus. The oil was analysed on an analytical GC and GC/MS and constituents were identified by comparison of their mass spectra to those from the MS library (Adams89, Nist92, Txx and Cib, D.DJ99).
The oil content of the aerial dried parts of A.lobelii,during four stages of the growing cycle, ranged from 0.13% (w/w) to 0.17% (w/w). The oil of A. lobelii was characterised by the high content of monoterpenes (73.3-95.7%) and oxidised terpenes (90.8-98.4%). The most representative compounds in all stages were: camphor (33.2-36.8%), 1,8-cineole (15.2-21.1%), artemisia ketone (6.0-24.2%), artemisia alcohol (2.6-3.2%) and borneol (3.0-3.6%). The amount of artemisia alcohol in the oil from Kokin Brod place (1) was exceptionally low (0.1%), while in our samples the amount of artemisia alcohol was quite significant (2.6-3.2%). We found greater amounts of artemisia ketone (24.2%) in the post bloom stage oil than in the oil from remaining stages. The oil from Kokin Brod had a significant amount of thujones (10.5%) while they were not detected in our oil, which is in accordance with the characteristics for species of Abrotanum section. It is interesting to note that there was a high amount of yomogi alcohol (4.7-5.2%) and methyleugenol (3.6%), in the full blooming stage oil from Gradište.
Key words: Artemisia lobelii, Asteraceae (Compositae), essential oil composition.
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