ESSENTIAL OIL COMPOSITION AND TOTAL PHENOLIC CONTENTS OF OREGANO FROM ARGENTINA

DAMBOLENA JS; ZUNINO MP; LUCINI EI; OLMEDO R; BANCHIO E; BIMA P; ZYGADLO JA

Huerta Grande

Jornada; XVII Jornadas Científicas de la Sociedad de Biología de Córdoba; 2009

Sociedad de Biología de Córdoba

Oregano plays a primary role among temperate culinary herbs in world trade. Of the species commercially known as oregano, most of the production comes from species of the genus Origanum. Origanum vulgare L. is the most variable species of the genus and the only one commonly known as ?oregano? in most countries. Six subspecies have been recognised within O. vulgare based on the basis of morphological and chemical characters. The commercial oregano of Argentina comes from O. vulgare ssp. vulgare, O. vulgare ssp. virens, O. x applii and O. x majoricum. There is no report on the yield and composition of the essential oil (EO) and total phenol contents (TPC) of these cultivated populations in literature. Our objetive was to analysis the EO, TPC and radical-scavenging properties from 3 populations of Origanum from Argentina. Results and discussion. The main components of EO were trans sabinene hydrate >27.7%) and thymol (>17.7%). The main sesquiterpenes were beta caryophyllene and germacrene D. TCP of the samples ranged from 353.6 to 774.3 μg/ml. In conclusion, the results of this study demonstrated that the different Origanum cultivated in Argentina contained different levels of TPC and antioxidant properties by environmental conditions. The EOs of oregano species studied in this work showed variability in the relative percentage of the two main components, while no geographical pattern could be observed.