Abstract:
Thymus species are well
known as medicinal plants because of their
biological and pharmacological properties.
Thymus kotschyanus seeds (10 populations)
were collected from various provinces of
Iran and transferred into a new uniform
environment. This study was carried out at
Badiei Research Station (Qom Province,
Iran) in 2008, under field conditions. The
experiment was carried out as a randomized
complete block design with three replicates.
The content of essential oils of this species
was assessed during the flowering stage,
and the chemical composition of the
essential oils were obtained by
hydrodistillation and analyzed by gas
chromatography (GC) and gas
chromatography/mass spectrometry (GCMS).
According to populations, 17
components representing 84.57-97.08% of
the total components, were identified.
Oxygenated monoterpenes were the main
group of constituents in all samples (87.14-
98.93%). thymol (2.45-78.65%), carvacrol
(1.84-49.38%), α-terpineol (1.79-17.1%),
borneol (.68-3.8%), linalool (.5-39.05%),
1,8cineole (.53- 8.39%), p-cymene (.38 -
7.74%) represented the mager compounds.
The highest oil yields were obtained from
Mazandaran 2 (2.5%) and Rudbar (2.3%)
populations and lowest oil yields were
obtained from Avan (1.1%) and Alamut
(1.09%) populations. The highest level of
thymol was obtained from Piranshahr
(78.65%) and Semnan (60.80%) populations
and lowest level of it obtained from
Mazandaran 2 (2.45%), Siahkal (3.95%)
populations. The highest level of carvacrol
was exist in Mazandaran 2 (49.38%) and
Rudbar (39.68%) populations. In this study,
the linalool and α-terpineol were found as
the main constituents of essential oil.
