Comparative essential oil composition of flowers, leavesand stems of basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) used as herb

Jean-Claude Chalchat; Mehmet Musa Özcan

doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2008.02.018

Comparative essential oil composition of flowers, leavesand stems of basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) used as herb

Food Chem. 2008 Sep 15;110(2):501-3. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2008.02.018. Epub 2008 Feb 16.

Authors

Jean-Claude Chalchat¹, Mehmet Musa Özcan²

Affiliations

¹ Laboratoire de Chimie des Huiles Essentielles, Universite Blaise Pascal de Clermont, 63177 Aubiere Cedex, France.
² Department of Food Engineering, Faculty of Agricultural, Selcuk University, 42031 Konya, Turkey. Electronic address: mozcan@selcuk.edu.tr.

PMID: 26049245
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2008.02.018

Abstract

The chemical composition of flower, leaves and stems from basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) have been examined by GC and GC-MS. The identified components constituting 99.03%, 95.04% and 97.66% of the flower, leaves and stem oils, respectively. The main constituents of the essential oil of flower, leaves and stem oils, respectively, were estragole (58.26%, 52.60% and 15.91%) and limonene (19.41%, 13.64% and 2.40%) and p-cymene (0.38%, 2.32% and 2.40%). Dill apiole (50.07%) was identified as the highest main constituent for stem. Estragole (15.91%), apiole (9.48) and exo-fenchyle acetate (6.14%) followed in order to decreasing them. Minor qualitative and major quantitative variations for some compounds of essential oils were determined with respect to different parts of O. basilicum. It was reported that the chemical composition of different parts oils of basil are very variable. It is known that specific estragole chemotypes are also known.

Keywords: Basil; Dillapiole; Essential oil; Estragol; Lamiaceae; O. basilicum.