Acta Pharm. 49 (1999) 107–112

The composition of essential oils of Calamintha nepeta (L.) Savi subsp. glandulosa (Req.)
P. W. Ball and Calamintha sylvatica Bromf. subsp. sylvatica

GORDANA STANIC,^1* NIKOLA BLAZEVIC, ² DRAGOMIR BRKIC,³ and   GORDAN LUKAC⁴ 

¹Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, University of Zagreb
²IREKS - Aroma, Zagreb
³Department of Botany, Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, University of Zagreb
⁴Paklenica, National Park, Starigrad-Paklenica

The essential oils of the leaves and apical flowering parts of Calamintha nepeta (L.) Savi ssp. glandulosa and Calamintha sylvatica Bromf. subsp. sylvatica naturally occurring in Croatia were analysed by gas chromatography (GC). In addition, the analysis comprised a sample of botanical undetermined Calamintha species. Main component (approximately 37-45%) of the essential oil of six samples of C. nepeta subsp. glandulosa from different locations varied as follows: piperitenone oxide (two samples), pulegone (three samples) and menthone (one sample). Pulegone predominated in the essential oil of C. sylvatica subsp. sylvatica (54.2%), whereas the essential oil of Calamintha species contained menthol in large quantity (47.7%).

Keywords: Calamintha nepeta subsp. glandulosa, Calamintha sylvatica subsp. sylvatica, Lamiaceae, essential oil, gas chromatography