Assessment of essential oil constituents and main agro-morphological variability in Satureja mutica populations

Satureja mutica Fisch is a highly aromatic species with interesting biological and pharmacological characteristics. This investigation was performed to evaluate the levels of inter- and intra-population variabilities of essential oil constituents and some agro-morphological characteristics of S. mutica in Iran. The essential oils of the aerial parts of plant have been analyzed by GC and GC/MS. High level of variability was found among the 58 individual plants of the seven studied populations. Coefficient of variation was the highest for essential oil content (CV = 52 %) among the populations. The essential oil content varied between 0.5 and 4.2 % (w/w). Thymol (6.5–74.6 %), carvacrol (0.9–70.4 %), borneol (0.1–10.9 %), p-cymene (0.30–14.2 %), and γ-terpinene (0.1–9.9 %) were identified as the major predominant constituents of essential oils for the studied individual plants. The clustering of individual plants based on the major oil components comprised three main groups, representing carvacrol/thymol/p-cymene, thymol/p-cymene/carvacrol, and carvacrol/borneol chemotypes. Among the studied agro-morphological traits, the highest levels of variability were observed for drug yield (CV = 99 %) and inflorescence length (CV = 55 %). Based on the higher essential oil content (4.2 %), drug yield (10.4 g plant−1), and plant height (45.9 cm), plant population from Keshanak region, because of its original habitat, is suggested as the most promising population for pharmaceutical purposes and mass production of essential oils. Thus, the variability recognized here might be considered for characterizing the large gene pool for breeding program.