Gh. Najafi, F. Sefidkon, V. Mozaffarian and H. Zare-Maivan

Abstract: Essential oils isolated by hydrodistillation from the aerial parts of Tanacetum polycephalum Schultz-Bip. subsp. argyrophyllum (K. Koch.) Podlech before flowering and at full flowering stage, were analyzed by a combination of capillary GC and GC/MS. Twenty-five components were identified that approximately constitute 92.8% and 97.9% of the oils, before flowering and full flowering stage, respectively. The main constituents of the oils were camphor (36.1% and 18.5%), pinocarvone (20.1% and 31.4%), α-pinene (8.6% and 9.5%), p-cymene (9.2% and 0.5%) and bornyl acetate (8.8% and 5.9%) before flowering and full flowering stage, respectively.1,8-cineole (18.5%) was found only in the oil of full flowering. There were some other differences between the minor components of the oils in two harvesting time.

The genus of Tanacetum belonging to Asteraceae family represents 26 species in Iran (1), 12 of which are endemic. Due to our searches in literature the oil of Tanacetum polycephalum Schultz-Bip. subsp. argyrophyllum (K. Koch.) Podlech has not been the subject of previous study, but there are some studies on the chemical composition of oils from other Tanacetum polycephalum subspecies or other Tanacetum species (2–8). In this paper, we would like to report on the oil yield and chemical composition of T. polycephalum ssp. argyrophyllum in two stages of growth, a plant which can be found growing wild in mountainous regions of western Iran.