Ecological Aspects of the Essential Oils from Different Salvia lavandulifolia Vahl Aerial Parts

Previous studies about chemical composition of Spanish sage (Salvia lavandulifolia Vahl.) essential oil have described high degree of intra-specific variability. One possible source of variability is the ratio of the different plant parts included in the raw material used for the distillation. In our study, a differentiate distillation of aerial parts (flowers, leaves and stems) have been carried out. Only small quantitative differences have been found between the chemical composition of leaves and stems essential oil, being 1,8-cineole the most representative compound of this essences. However, the essential oil obtained from flowers showed also qualitative differences, with a chemical composition very close to the described for some Lavandula species which share habitat with Spanish sage and whose essential oils are basically obtained from their inflorescences (L. angustifolia, L. latifolia and L. x intermedia). This could indicate the important role of certain volatiles present in flowers as linalool and linalyl acetate as defense against hervibores insects as well as pollinator attractants.