Essential oil and glycosidically bound volatiles of Origanum vulgare L. ssp hirtum (Link) Ietswaart

The glycosidically bound volatiles were isolated from dried plant material by percolation with ethyl acetate and by extraction with water during hydro distillation of essential oil. Fifteen volatile aglycones were identified b y gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) on two columns with differen t polarity of the stationary phases. The main aglycones were: thymoquinone, benzyl alcohol, thymol, 2-phenylethanol, carvacrol and 1-octen-3-ol. The c ontent of aglycones was 19 and 21 mg kg(-1) with respect to the method of i solation. The chemical composition of aglycones was compared with the chemi cal composition of essential oil, which consisted mainly of thymol and carv acrol. After the hydrolysis of glycosides, D-(+)-glucose and unknown disaccharide were identified. The hydrolysis of disaccharide, D-(+)-glucose and D-(+)-ga lactose were detected by TLC and GC-MS as trimethylsilylethers. Copyright ( C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.