Effects of agronomic practices on volatile composition of hyssopus officinalis L. Essential oils

Abstract

The chemical composition of Hyssopus officinalis (Lamiaceae) essentialoil grown in southeastern Spain was analyzed by GC-MS. Due to the high relevance of this species in the world market, the study is focused on chemicalheterogeneity of different oil batches and their extraction yield, cultivated under irrigation and non-irrigation conditions and with different harvesting dates. All essential oil samples have two main terpene compounds whichare pinocamphone and iso-pinocamphone, accounting for approximately 35-40%of the total oil content. Other relevant compounds were identified, with α-pinene, which accounted for 10-17% contribution to the total composition, standing out. Significant differences between their volatile composition havebeen observed between treatments, being limonene, (E)-β-ocimene, pinocarveol, β-pinene and β-phellandrene the compounds that contributed most to thediscrimination. It was also observed that the irrigation period is the mostfavourable for the cultivation of hyssop in this region, specially for batch7which gives the highest extraction yield and the best EO quality. © 2011 by the authors.