Chemical composition analysis of the essential oil of Melissa officinalis L. from Kurdistan, Iran by HS/SPME method and calculation of the biophysicochemical coefficients of the components.

Avat Arman Taherpour, Hossein Maroofi, Zeinab Rafie, Kambiz Larijani

Index: Nat. Prod. Res. 26(2) , 152-60, (2012)

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Abstract

The volatile constituents of the essential oil of wild Melissa officinalis L. obtained from the Kurdistan province of Iran were extracted by headspace/solid-phase micro-extraction and were analysed by gas chromatography and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Of a total of 14 compounds in the oil, 12 (85.7%) were identified. The main components were as follows: (E)-citral (37.2%), neral (23.9%) and citronellal (20.3%). Some physicochemical properties, such as the logarithm of calculated octanol-water partitioning coefficients (log K (ow))(,) total biodegradation (TB (d) in mol h(-1) and g h(-1)), water solubility (S (w), mg L(-1) at 25°C) and median lethal concentration 50 (LC(50)), were calculated for compounds 1-14 from M. officinalis L.