Analysis of Origanum vulgare volatiles by direct thermal desorption coupled to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

Volatile components of samples of a population of Spanish Origanum vulgare have been analyzed by direct thermal desorption coupled to GC-MS. The metho d is fast and reliable and requires a low amount of sample, allowing analys is of leaves and flowers from a single individual plant. Volatile yield is highly variable among individual plants and concentration also presents a h igh variation for most Origanum volatile compounds, linalool being the main component in most samples. Statistical analyses are applied in order to fi nd patterns in composition data. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science BN. All rights r eserved.