Chemical composition of the essential oil of Majorana hortensis grown in Uttaranchal

Laiq ur Rahman
1*
,

Shishir Kumar Singh
1
, Anju Yadav
2
, Anand Singh
1
, Subhash Chandra Singh
2
,
A.K.Kukreja
2
, AA Naqvi
2
and SPS Khanuja
2

1
Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Resource Centre Purara, Bageshwar- 263688
2
Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, PO CIMAP, Lucknow- 226015
Abstract
GLC and GC-MS Analysis was done to analyse the hydrodistilled essential oil of Majorana
hortensis grown in Uttranchal state of India. The 36 compounds could be identified out of 50 by their
mass spectra accounting for 93% of the oil. The major ones are trans-sabinene hydrate (41.2%),
terpinen-4-ol (18.5%), cis-sabinene hydrate (9.3%), -terpineol (3.8%), p-cymene (3.6%) and sabinene
(3.0%)
1. Introduction
Majorana hortensis syn. O. majorana is a perennial herb and native of Egypt and eastern
Mediterranean countries. The aerial parts of the plants are used for oil, which has a lot of uses in flavour
perfumery and pharmaceutical industry. It is also used as a spice and condiment as well as a flavouring
agent in food industry. The plant has been used for centuries in the Mediterranean to help people
maintain good health. As with many folk remedies, modern science has been late to the table starting
research on this incredible plant. Recent laboratory studies have confirmed the powerful antibiotic, anti-
fungal and anti-viral properties of the essential oil. The composition of oil from various related plant
species have been investigated by number of workers (Lawrence, 1989;Nykanen, 1986; Komaitis, Infanti-
Papatragianni, and Melissari-Panagiotou, 1992; Baser et al., 1993, Ravid and Putievsky, 1986; Vera and
Chan Ming, 1999; Pande and Mathela, 2000). The composition varies from country to country and
generally two types of oil forms exist. In one category the major components are terpinen-4-ol and
sabinene hydrate whereas another form contains thymol and/or carvacrol as major constituent. (Sarer et
al., 1982; Baser et al., 1993). In the present report GLC and GC-MS analysis was done of the oil obtained
from freshly harvested aerial parts of Majorana hortensis grown at CRC Purara, Bageshwar-Uttranchal.
2. Materials and Methods
The aerial part of flowering plant grown at CIMAP, Resource Centre, Bageshwar situated in
Uttaranchal state of India was harvested in bright sunlight and hydro-distilled in Clevenger type
apparatus for 4 hrs. The essential oil was analysed on Perkin Elmer auto XL GC using a PE-5 column
(50m x 0.32mm x 0.25 film) with temperature programme from 100C to 280C@3C/ min, initial hold
2min, hydrogen at 10psi inlet pressure; injector 220C, detector FID 300C. Data was processed on
turbochrome navigator software.GC-MS analysis was performed on Perkin Elmer turbomass system
using identical column and temperature programme, He as a carrier at 10 Psi. Compound identification
is based on Wiley and NIST libraries search.

* Corresponding author.

3. Results and discussion

The hydro-distillation of aerial parts of Majorana hortensis produced a colorless essential oil
with a yield of 0.4% on fresh weight basis. In a related species O. vulgare grown in India the oil yield was
0.1% (Kaul et al. 1996; Pande & Mathela, 2000). However, the Origanum majorana from Reunion Island
reported to have 1% of oil (Vera & Chane-Ming.1999). The compounds identified are given in the table
1 along with their elution time on PE-5 column used in the analysis. The 36 compounds could be
identified out of 50 by their mass spectra accounting for 93% of the oil. The major ones are trans-
sabinene hydrate (41.2%), terpinen-4-ol (18.5%), cis-sabinene hydrate (9.3%), -terpineol (3.8%), p-
cymene (3.6%) and sabinene (3.0%). The oil reported from Reunion Island contains low concentration of
sabinene hydrate and nearly two times higher terpinen-4-ol than the oil reported in present study.
The Majorana oil reported to exist in two chemotypes. The first one is rich in monoterpene alcohol
(terpinen-4-ol, sabinene hydrates) and the other rich in phenols. The present study has shown that the
oil obtained from Uttaranchal belongs to monoterpene alcohol chemotype. Similar type of oil has also
been reported from Moroccan and European material. The oil composition of Origanum majorana from
Turkey has high carvacrol/thymol content (Baser et al., 1993) and very low concentrate of sabinene
hydrate & terpinen-4-ol. Further work of improvement of this crop is in progress.

Acknowledgements
The authors are thankful to the DBT & CSIR for providing the financial support.

References

Lawrence, B. M. (1989). Progress in essential oils. Perf. Flav. , 14, 29-41.

Nykanen, I (1986). High-resolution gas chromatography- mass spectrometric determination of the
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Table-1
Essential oil composition and (%) of Majorana hortensis
S/N Compound RT (min) Area%
1. -Thujene 6.53 0.1
2. -Pinene 6.77 0.2
3. Sabinene 7.69 3.0
4. -Myrcene 7.82 0.5
5. -Pinene 7.90 tr
6. -Phellandrene 8.51 0.2
7. -Terpinene 8.84 0.8
8. p-Cymene 9.06 3.6
9. Limonene 9.22 0.4
10. -Phellandrene 9.31 0.3
11. 1,8-Cineol 9.41 tr
12. -Terpinene 10.12 1.0
13. cis-Sabinene hydrate 10.48 9.3
14. -Terpinolene 11.17 0.4
15. Linalool 11.28 0.7
16. trans-Sabinene hydrate 11.64 41.2
17. 2,4-Hexadiene-1-ol 12.31 0.5
18. cis-Sabinene hydrate acetate 12.43 1.4
19. trans-Sabinene hydrate acetate 13.08 0.6
20. 7-Methyl-3, 4-Octadiene 13.87 0.1
21. Borneol 14.41 0.1
22. Terpinen-4-ol 14.69 18.5
23. -Terpineol 15.10 3.8
24. Nerol 16.48 0.3
25. Cuminaldehyde 17.28 tr
26. Geraniol 17.31 0.1
27. Linalyl acetate 17.50 0.9
28. Piperitone 17.88 1.2
29. Sabinyl acetate 19.12 1.0
30. Carvacrol 19.54 0.2
31. Neryl acetate 21.43 tr
32. Geranyl acetate 22.74 0.2
33. -Caryophyllene 25.28 0.3
34. -Humulene 26.71 0.1
35. Spathulenol 32.20 0.2
36. Caryophyllene oxide 32.33 1.1
tr = < 0.1%