SPME GC-MS analysis of Cretan Salvia pomifera volatile constituents

The history of several Salvia species (Salvia officinalis, Salvia fruticosa, Lamiaceae) can be dated back to Ancient Greece (Theophrastus and Dioscurides Pedanius). A long history of culinary and medicinal use of sage is known as well. Nowadays, several Ph. Eur. monographs, as well as two EMA-HMPC Community Herbal Monographs (Salviae officinalis folium and Salviae fruticosae folium) are in use. Salvia pomifera L. is another East-Mediterranean plant, restricted to Greece and to Asia Minor and typical to the island of Crete. It has a long history of folk medicinal use, nevertheless very few scientific data is available on this species so far. The aim of this study was to analyse the volatile compounds in Salviae pomiferae herba using a novel SPME GC-MS approach. The plant material originated from Crete. The harvests were carried out in June 2013, during the optimal phenophase of early blooming. We identified 26 compounds in Salviae pomiferae herba samples, i.e. 97.10% of the volatile components. The components identified in highest percentage were: α-thujone (23.54%), β-thujone (23.20%), and β-caryophyllene (18.84%). Previous works investigated water-distilled Salvia pomifera leaf essential oil by GC-MS. Twenty-seven components representing 92.87% of the oil were characterized in plants originating from Turkey [1]. The major components were β-thujone (50.67%), α-thujone (15.64%) and 1, 8-cineole (7.08%). Another investigation of S. pomifera oil (originating from Peloponnese Greece [2]) reported the content of 1, 8-cineole (2.3 – 9.5%), α-thujone (5.0 – 14.6%) and β-thujone (26.3 – 44.1%). The SPME GC-MS approach used in our study allows for direct analyses of the fresh plant material without the need for volatile oil isolation. Analyses of several Salvia species volatiles will be compared in the presentation.

Acknowledgements: This work was supported by the Slovak Grant Agency VEGA Project № 1/0646/14 and 2/0044/15.

Keywords: Salviae pomiferae herba, SPME GC-MS, α-thujone, β-thujone, β-caryophyllene.

References:

[1] Baser KHC, Özek T, Kirimer N. The essential oil of Salvia pomifera L. J Essent Oil Res 1993; 5: 347 – 348

[2] Bellomaria B, Arnold N, Valentini V, Arnold HJ. Contribution to the study of the essential oils from three species of Salvia growing wild in the Eastern Mediterranean region. J Essent Oil Res 1992; 4: 607 – 614