Composition of the Essential Oils of Ocimum canum, O. gratissimum and O. minimum

Ana Paula Martins; Lígia R. Salgueiro; Roser Vila; Félix Tomi; Salvador Cañigueral; Joseph Casanova; António Proença da Cunha; Tomás Adzet

doi:10.1055/s-2006-960465

Planta Med 1999; 65(2): 187-189
DOI: 10.1055/s-2006-960465

Letters

Composition of the Essential Oils of Ocimum canum, O. gratissimum and O. minimum

Ana Paula Martins¹ , Lígia R. Salgueiro¹ , Roser Vila² , Félix Tomi³ , Salvador Cañigueral² , Joseph Casanova³ , António Proença da Cunha¹ , Tomás Adzet²

¹Lab. de Farmacognosia, Fac. de Farmácia, Universidade de Coimbra, R. do Norte, Coimbra, Portugal
²Unitat de Farmacologia i Farmacognòsia, Fac. de Farmàcia, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
³Equipe Chimie et Biomasse, URA CNRS 2053, Université de Corse, Ajaccio, France

Abstract

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Abstract

The essential oils of Ocimum canum, O. gratissimum and O. minimum grown in S. Tomé, where they are used in Traditional Medicine mainly as febrifuge and for the treatment of respiratory diseases, were investigated. The essential oils were obtained from the aerial parts by hydrodistillation and subsequently analysed by GC, GC-MS and ¹³C-NMR. ¹³C-NMR spectroscopy proved to be an important tool, which can be very useful in the identification of most of the constituents. Major compounds in the volatile oil of O. grotissimum were thymol (48.1%) and p-cymene (12.5%). The essential oil of O. canum was characterized by its high content of trans-methyl cinnamate (79.7%), whereas the most important oil constituent of O. minimum was linalool (52.7%).

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