title: A powerful approach to explore the potential of medicinal plants as a natural source of odor and antioxidant compounds.
abstract: In this study an efficient and reliable method based on dynamic headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-qMS), was developed to establish the volatile metabolomic pattern of Thymus vulgaris L., Rosmarinus officinalis L. and Ruta chalepensis L. medicinal plants. The HS-SPME influencing parameters were investigated and the results indicated that the best extraction capability, was obtained using DVB/CAR/PDMS coating fiber at 40 °C for 45 min. Under optimal conditions, a total of 99 volatile metabolites were identified, including 53 terpenoids, 19 carbonyl compounds, 7 esters, 6 alcohols, among others. The main volatile metabolites identified in T. vulgaris include thymol (67 %), 3-octanone (9 %) and 1-octen-3-ol (7 %), while in R. officinalis the most dominant volatiles were eucalyptol (40 %), 2-decanone (20 %) and bornyl acetate (10 %). 2-Undecanone (53 %), (E)-2-octenal (28 %) and 2-nonanone (10 %) were the most relevant volatile metabolites identified in R. chalepensis. The results suggested that the HS-SPME/GC-qMS methodology is a powerful approach to establish the volatile metabolomic fingerprint of medicinal plants and providing a reliable tool for the complete characterization of these biologically active medicinal plants.
authors.affiliation: CQM/UMa, Centro de Química da Madeira, Campus Universitário da Penteada, 9000-390 Funchal, Portugal.
authors.forename: Rosa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Perestrelo
authors.affiliation: CQM/UMa, Centro de Química da Madeira, Campus Universitário da Penteada, 9000-390 Funchal, Portugal.
authors.forename: Catarina L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.affiliation: CQM/UMa, Centro de Química da Madeira, Campus Universitário da Penteada, 9000-390 Funchal, Portugal.
authors.forename: Freddy
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rodrigues
authors.affiliation: CQM/UMa, Centro de Química da Madeira, Campus Universitário da Penteada, 9000-390 Funchal, Portugal.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Caldeira
authors.affiliation: CQM/UMa, Centro de Química da Madeira, Campus Universitário da Penteada, 9000-390 Funchal, Portugal ; Universidade da Madeira, Centro de Ciências Exatas e de Engenharia da Universidade da Madeira, Campus Universitário da Penteada, 9000-390 Funchal, Portugal.
authors.forename: José S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Câmara
keywords: Antioxidant capacity; GC-qMS; Medicinal plants; Solid-phase microextraction; Volatile metabolite