Volatile constituents of two Hypericum species from Tunisia.
The chemical composition of the essential oils obtained by hydrodistillation from the aerial parts of the Tunisian Hypericum perforatum and H. ericoides ssp. roberti was elucidated by a combination of GC and GC-MS analyses. The main constituents of the oil of H. perforatum were alpha-pinene (11.8%), alpha-ylangene (10.4%), germacrene-D (9.5%), n-octane (6.5%) and alpha-selinene (5.9%). The oil of H. ericoides ssp. roberti exhibited a higher amount of aliphatic and branched hydrocarbons and the main constituents were n-octane (29.1%), alpha-pinene (10.9%), pulegone (7.7%) and acetophenone (7%). Both qualitative and quantitative differences were observed between the studied oils. This chemical variability seems likely to result from the genetic variability, since samples of both species were collected at the same location and processed under the same conditions.
Laboratoire des Substances Naturelles, Institut National de Recherche et d'Analyse Physico-chimique, Biotechpole de Sidi Thabet, 2020 Ariana, Tunisia. hosni_karim@voila.fr
Karim
K
Hosni
Kamel
K
Msaâda
Mouna
M
Ben Taârit
Thouraya
T
Chahed
Brahim
B
Marzouk
D020902:Hypericum / Q000737:chemistry*; D009822:Oils, Volatile / Q000737:chemistry*; D013045:Species Specificity; D014416:Tunisia; D055549:Volatile Organic Compounds / Q000032:analysis*
D009822:Oils, Volatile; D055549:Volatile Organic Compounds