Nada N. Kovzacevic, * and Mihailo S. Ristic

Abstract: The essential oil obtained by hydrodistillation from the air-dried herb of Potentilla speciosa Willd. was determined to be less than 0.1%. Chemical composition of the oil was determined by GC (FID) and GC/MS techniques. The main components of the oil were the linear aliphatic aldehydes (decanal, undecanal, pentadecanal) and linear aliphatic alcohols (undecanol, hexadecanol). In the terpene fraction, linalool (1.5%), hexahydofarnesylacetone (1.4%), olivetol (1.0%), geranylacetone (0.9%), borneol (0.7%) and alpha-terpineol (0.6%) were also found.

The investigation of Potentilla speciosa Willd. (Rosaceae) is a part of our study of endemic, relict and rare species from Serbia and Montenegro. This species is sub-endemic plant of Balkan-peninsula (1,2). It is distributed on limestone at the high mountain region of Montenegro. There is no published data about phytochemical investigation of P. speciosa. The samples of aerial and underground parts of P. speciosa were collected during the flowering stage in the middle of July of 2000, 2001 and 2003. Our research indicated that aerial parts contain around 0.3% of total flavonoids and up to 12.5% of condensed tannins. Underground parts, rhizome and roots, contain up to 13.0% of tannins. Different extracts of P. speciosa herb and rhizome affect to decrease intensity of lipid peroxidation, some of them possess anti-inflammatory and anti-ulcer activity (3,4). Probably, all these activities can be connected with the content of polyphenolic constituents of Potentilla species. It is not well known that the aerial parts of Potentilla species contain trace amounts of essential oil. This paper deals with analysis of the essential oil obtained by hydrodistillation from the air-dried herb of P. speciosa.