The genus Tordylium L. (Apiaceae) is distributed in almost all the countries bordering the Mediterranean. They are plants widely used in ethnomedicine in various countries, especially in the Eastern part of Mediterranean, and, furthermore largely used as food. Consequently, in order to evaluate not only the chemical aspects but also the biological properties, the essential oil (EO), obtained from the Sicilian accession of Tordilym apulum L., not previously studied, were investigated. The chemical composition of the essential oil, obtained by classical hydrodistillation and GC-MS analysis, showed the occurrence of large amount of monoterpene hydrocarbons (68.8%) containing huge quantity of β-cis-ocimene (65.0%). The second most abundant metabolite was octyl hexanoate (14.4%), that can be considered a marker of genus Tordylium. ROS levels and the activity of antioxidant enzymes SOD and CAT on normal and OZ-stressed PMNs were measured in order to study the effects of EO of T. apulum.
Keywords: GC-MS; Tordylium apulum L.; antioxidant properties; apiaceae; essential oil; β-cis-ocimene.