Evaluation of Essential Oil Composition in Three Species of Hypericum from Iran

Background: Essential oils contain a large variety of volatile secondary metabolites such as terpenes, terpenoides, phenolic and aliphatic derivative. Nowadays, These compounds extensively used in Pharmaceutical , sanitary and cosmetic industries. Antimicrobial activity of these oils and their components such as α-pinene and β-pinene, the main essential oil constituent of some Hypericum spp., have been reported. Objective: This study was conducted to identify the constituents of essential oil in three Hypericum species in Iran to compare differences among their major volatile constituents. Methods: Essential oils were extracted by hydro-distillation of fresh plant materials using Clevenger apparatus. The essential oils were analyzed by both gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography −mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Results: Monoterpens were found as the major constituent of essential oil in H. perforatum L. and H. patulum Thunb . However, n-alkans were the major constituent of the oil in H. tetrapterum Frise . In this study, α-Pinene (21.88%) was found to be the most abundant compound in the H. perforatum whilst β- Pinene (30.20%) and n-undecane (30.84%) were the main constituents of H. patulum and H. tetrapterum essential oils respectively. Conclusion: In this study, we found that the different plant species made a remarkable difference in the essential oil constituents. In this study the most component of essential oils of H. perforatum and H. patulum were α-Pinene and β-Pinene respectively and this component can be make them promising for treatment of infectious diseases such as infectious endocarditis.