No abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the essential oil profiles of four South-Croatian Satureja species, as determined by GC/FID and GC/MS, with their DNA sequences for an internal transcribed spacer (ITS1-5.8S-ITS2) of the nuclear ribosomal DNA. A phylogenetic analysis showed that S. montana and S. cuneifolia, characterized by a similar essential oil composition, rich in the monoterpene hydrocarbon carvacrol, clustered together with high and moderate bootstrap support. On the contrary, S. subspicata and S. visianii, characterized by quite unique essential oil compositions, clustered together with the moderate bootstrap support. All four Croatian Satureja species clustered in one clade, separately from Macaronesian S. hortensis, although it had essential oil composition similar to that of S. montana and S. cuneifolia. This is the first report on the comparison between the phytochemical and DNA sequence data in Satureja species and useful contribution to the better understanding of interspecies relationships in this genus.

The essential oils of Satureja montana L. and Satureja cuneifolia Ten. were subjected to detailed GC-MS analysis in order to determine possible similarities between them and also the differences in their chemical compositions, depending on the locality and the stage of development. The plant materials were collected prior to, during and after flowering from three different locations in the central part of Dalmatia (Croatia). For both plants the qualitative composition of the components appeared to be constant in three phenological stages and in three different localities. However, considerable differences were found to exist in the amounts of several compounds.

The volatile constituents of Achillea clavennae L. (Asteraceae), rare plant of Europe, have been analysed using GC/MS. Twenty- five components making up 81.6% of the oil were characterized with camphor (29.5%), myrcene (5.5%), 1,8-cineole (5.3%), beta-caryophyllene (5.1%) and linalool (4.9%) being the major constituents. The essential oil was evaluated for antibacterial and antifungal activities. The screening of the antimicrobial activity of essential oil was conducted by a disc diffusion test against Gram-positive (Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus faecalis), Gram-negative (Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus mirabilis) and fungal organisms (Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus fumigatus, Candida albicans). The activity was more pronounced against Gram-negative and fungal organisms than against Gram-positive bacteria. A. clavennae oil was found to possess antimicrobial activity against Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and all fungal organisms.

The essential oil of Satureja montana L. ssp. variegata (Host) P. W. Ball (Lamiaceae) was characterized by a high concentration of oxygenated monoterpenes (71.3%), among which carvacrol (19.4%) and thymol (16.6%) were the major compounds. When the essential oil was applied on local hosts Chenopodium amaranticolor Coste & Reyn. and Chenopodium quinoa Willd. simultaneously with the infecting virus, the number of local lesions on both Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) and Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) infected plants was reduced for 29.2% and 24.1%, respectively. When applied individually for each virus, thymol was more effective in reducing CMV infection (33.2%), while carvacrol was more effective in reducing the TMV infection (34.3%). No synergistic effect of both monoterpenes was observed in the antiviral activity of the oil.