Volatile compounds composition of Elsholtzia ciliata fresh, frozen and dried herbal materials

Abstract

Elsholtzia ciliata (Thunb.) Hyl. belonging to Lamiaceae family commonly known as crested late-summer mint is very interesting herb for its chemical composition and pharmacological activities. The aim of this study was obtaining a chemical composition of the volatile compounds from fresh, frozen and dried E. ciliata herbal materials. The samples were prepared by the dynamic headspace solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry method (GC-MS). This is the first study of volatile compounds determined from fresh, frozen and dried herbal samples of E. ciliata. The plant growing in Lithuania does not exhibit a lot of volatile compounds. Sixteen different compounds have been obtained from all SPME samples. Dehydroelsholtzia ketone, elsholtzia ketone, beta-bourbonene, caryophyllene, alphacaryophyllene, germacrene D and alpha-farnesene were identified and found to be predominant compounds in fresh, frozen and dried herbal samples. The major amounts of ketones were found in dried herbal samples and made up 21.94% (dehydroelsholtzia ketone) and 71.34% (elsholtzia ketone) of headspace SPME composition. Sesquiterpenes were the second major group of identified compounds and obtained from dried (3.3%), frozen (1.73%) and fresh (1.95%) E. ciliata samples. Predominant sesquiterpenes were αcaryophyllene and β-bourbonene in fresh (1.04% and 0.53%), frozen (0.84% and 0.49%) and dried (1.6% and 0.97%) herbal materials.