Chemical Constituents of Essential Oils Extracted from the Leaves and Stems of Eryngium caucasicum Trautv. from Iran

The chemical composition of the aerial parts essential oils of Eryngium caucasicum Trautv. was studied by a combination of GC and GC-MS. Studies were carried out on leaves and stem oils obtained from coastal and hill slope areas at vegetative and generative phases. Fifty five components of the oil were identified representing 100 % of the oil. The main constituents of the oil were 3-hexyne (46.1%), beta-sesquiphellandrene (20.4 %) and limonene (10.7 %) at first vegetative phase (May, 2009) in the leaves of coastal plants, while 5-methyl-2-pyrimidone (53.4 %), limonene (12.8 %) and 6-acetoxy-2,3-dihydro-1Hpyrrolizin (12.4 %) were dominant components in hill slope. The major components of the essential oils at second vegetative phase (June, 2009) in the leaves of coastal plants were 4 (5)-acetyl-1H-imidazole (63.6 %), thymol (13.9 %) and beta-sesquiphellandrene (10.0 %), and in hill slope plants were beta-sesquiphellandrene (44.3 %), limonene (20.1 %) and trans-beta-farnesene (14.1). 5-Methyl-2-pyrimidone (74.9 %), 4-(1,5-dimethylhex-4enyl) cyclohex-2-enone (15.8 %) and beta-sesquiphellandrene (2.9 %) were dominant components at generative phase (July, 2009) in the stems of coastal plants, while beta-sesquiphellandrene (25.8 %), 5-methyl-2-pyrimidone (18.7 %) and limonene (11.8 %) were dominant components in hill slope plants.