GC/MS Analysis of the Essential Oil of Thymus Longicaulis Presl. from Kosovo

Abstract

Three samples of essential oil of Thymus longicaulis Presl. were analyzed for their chemical composition. The plants were collected in their natural habitat on three different locations in Kosovo. Aerial parts of the plant were submitted to hydrodistillation using Clevenger apparatus. Gas chromatography – mass spectrometry analysis was performed for each extracted essential oil sample. Essential oil yield resulted with 0.68-1.54% on dried weight. Analyzed essential oil constituents resulted with variation in their quality and quantity. One sample was characterised as thymol/carvacrol chemotype, resulting with 15.26% of thymol and 12.65% of carvacrol as its main constituents. Two other analyzed samples had very small amounts of thymol and carvacrol and resulted with α-terpineol (14.23%), α-terpinyl acetate (11.81%), linalool (9.63%), and myrcene (6.59%) as the main constituents for the first, and α-phellandrene (19.07%), linalool (14.22%), β-caryophyllene (9.27%), and limonene (7.83%) for the second sample, respectively.