Background: The genus Stachys (Lamiaceae) is distributed in mild regions of the Mediterranean and south-west Asia. About 270 Stachys species are reported; 34 of them are found in Iran of which 13 are endemic. Several Stachys species are used in Iranian folk medicine as medicinal plants. There is no report on Stachys athorecalyx essential oil analysis previously.Objective: Investigation on essential oil constituents of Stachys athorecalyx collected from Arasbaran protected area.Method: in this study, Stachys athorecalyx has been collected from the Arasbaran protected areas; shade dried and the essential oil extracted by means of steam distillation and analyzed with GC/MS.Results: Thirty six compounds representing 98.1% of total oil were identified in the oil of Stachys athorecalyx. SPATHULENOL (22.1%) was the major compounds. Oxygenated compounds were predominant (71.2%). Eighteen monoterpenes (47.9%), thirteen sesquiterpenes (42.9%) and two aromatic compounds (1.6%) were founded.Conclusion: according to our investigation’s results and considering previously reports on other Stachys species’ essential oil compounds, there is good similarity between essential oil compounds of this species and other reported species in this genus.

The chemical composition of the essential oil of Phlomis olivieri Benth growing wild in Iran was examined by GC/MS. The oil contains over thirty-nine components. The major components are hexahydrofarnesyl acetone (13.3%), SPATHULENOL (11.4%), germacrene-D (9.7%), β-caryophylene (6.9%) and caryophyllene oxide (5.3%). As a result of this investigation the oil of Ph.olivieri is characterized by a high content of sesquiterpenes and only trace amounts of monoterpenes.  

Centaurea xanthocephalaisis a perennial wheat flower that distributed in North-West in Iran. In this study to determine of essential oil of Centaurea xanthocephala, the plant parts in blooming were collected from Uromieh, Ghasemloo Valley on July 2010, then dried in laboratory and crush to particles. The Essential oils were obtain ed by hydro distillation and were analyzed by GC and GC/MS. The yield of stem and leaf essential oils (w/w dried weight) was 0.02% and inflorescence 0.023%. 18 components were characterized for the stem and leaf oil with SPATHULENOL (26.1%) and a-copaene (11.4%) as the main constituents. 16 compounds were identified in the inflorescence oil with SPATHULENOL (28.6%), a-copaene (13.0%), Cis-longipinanol (5.6%) and E-caryophyllene (4.8%) as the major components. As results shown, the yield of different parts of C. xanthocephalais insignificant. Also the amount of major components in inflorescence more than stem and leaf.

Ziziphora persicaor Iranian kakooti is an annual aromatic plant from Labiatea family that grows wild in Iran and has strong antimicrobial effects. In this research, the aerial parts of this plant were collected at full flowering stage from six habitats. After confirmation of scientific names of the plants by Herbarium of Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands (TARI), the plant materials were dried at shade. The essential oils were obtained by hydro-distillation, the yields were calculated based on dry weight and the oils were analyzed by GC and GC/MS. Results showed that oil yields varied from 0.11% (Meshkin Shahr, Nodooz) to 0.39% (Alamoot, Ghazvine) for different samples. Seventeen to twenty-six components were identified in the essential oils. The main compound in the essential oil of Alamout and Gharetape samples were SPATHULENOL (25.7% and 24.1%, respectively). The major compound in the oil of Urmieh sample was beta-bisabolene (28.8%). The main compound in others oils was epi-alpha-muurolol that its percentage in the oil of Meshkinshahr sample (20.8%) was higher than Gharechaman (17.1%) and Miyaneh (14.4%). Of course the three above components were found in all oils, but their percentages were completely different. Results of this research showed the oil of Ziziphora persica in Iran is completely different with other species of Ziziphora that contain pulegone as main compound in their oils.

Echinophora cinerea is grown in the mountains of Iran and has aromatic and medicinal properties. The secondary metabolites of this plant are used as sources of natural antioxidants and anticancer agents. This study aimed to investigate the chemical compounds of the essential oils in different parts of Echinophora cinereal. The E. cinerea plants were collected in July, in the Zagros mountains, Iran. The chemical compositions of different essential oils were detected using gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. The highest essential oil content belonged to the flower and root of E. cinerea (0.90 and 0.85%, respectively). The essential oil content of the flower and root was similar, and the amount of essential oil in the leaf and stem was also the same (P>0.05). The total components of essential oil in the root, stem, leaf, and flower of E. cinerea were 96.23, 97.28, 89.95, and 97%, which included 44, 36, 27, and 38 components, respectively. The major important components of root essential oil included α-phellandrene (25.86%), p-cymene (18.17%), γ-terpinene (11.87%), (-)-SPATHULENOL (5.58%), and α-pinene (5.17%). The greatest important components of the stem essential oil included p-cymene (35.25%), α-phellandrene (23.17%), and α-pinene (10.66%). The most important components of leaf essential oil include α-phellandrene (16.5%), 6-Octen-1-ol, 3,7-dimethyl-, (R) (14.02%), linalool (11.87%), p-cymene (7.8%), carvacrol (6.48%), β-phellandrene (5.87%), and sabinol (5.77%). The major important components of flower essential oil include α-phellandrene (27.31%), p-cymene (9.86%), β-phellandrene (6.84%), 1H-3a,7-Methanoazulene, octahydro-1,4,9,9-tetramethyl- (6.78%), linalool (5.75%), α-pinene (5.26%), sabinol (5.06%), and 6-Octen-1-ol, 3,7-dimethyl-, (R) (4.92%). In general, it can be concluded that the different parts of E. cinerea differ in terms of volatile components, and the amount of each compound can be considered for exploiting this plant for industrial and pharmaceutical purposes.

The Anthemis genus, belonging to Asteraceae family, has 23 endemic annual species in Iran, with the flowers and shoots containing essential oil. In this experiment, for the first time, the seeds of Anthemis tinctoria L. were collected from west Azarbayejan, Iran, and cultivated at the field of Alborz Research Station. In order to determine the essential oil composition of cultivated Anthemis tinctoria, random sampling was conducted at full flowering stage from flowering shoot. Flowers, leaves and stems were divided and dried in open air and their essential oil was produced separately by hydro-distillation. To analyze the essential oil composition, GC and GC-MS were used. Results indicated that essential oil percentage in flower, leaf, stem and total shoot was 0.0892, 0.0487, 0.0466 and 0.0792%, respectively. Analysis of leaf essential oil indicated that 32 compounds were detected; five main compounds were camphor (15.8%), α-eudesmol (10.3%), guaiol (9.6%), chrysanthenone (8.4%) and 1,8- cineol (8.0%); contributing to more than 53% of the essential oil composition. Twenty-one compounds were detected in stem essential oil; four main compounds were SPATHULENOL (25.6%), α-eudesmol (14.5%), caryophyllene oxide (11.8%) and b-eudesmol (5.9%). Moreover, 22 compounds were detected in flower essential oil; five main compounds were α-eudesmol (27.5%), b-eudesmol (14.3%), SPATHULENOL (13.3%), 10-epi-g-eudesmol (7.2%), 1, 8-cineol (4.2%). The results also indicated that 29 compounds were detected in shoot essential oil; four main compounds were g-eudesmol (39.92%), caronene (9.1%), camphor (6.5%), SPATHULENOL (5.1%) and 1,8-cineol (4.3%). According to the obtained results, the percentage of a-eudesmol as main component of this essential oil varied from 10 to 40% in different plant parts, the lowest in leaf oil and the highest in aerial part oil. The highest amount of b-eudesmol was found in flower and stem oil. The presence of high amount of chrysanthenone and camphor in leaf oil was also remarkable. It can be concluded that by using flowering shoot or total aerial parts of A. tinctoria in full flowering stage, more essential oil yield would be produced. In addition, for special purposes and obtaining some special compounds, special plant parts could be distilled.

In this research, the essential oil of the aerial parts of Torilis leptophylla, collected from Ilam- Province and the essential oil of the aerial parts of Thecocarpus meifolius, collected from Shahre Kord were obtained by microwave and analysed by GC/MS. SPATHULENOL (15.74%), trans-a-bergamothene (9.37%) and germacrene D (8.94%) were the major constituents in the oil of T leptophylla. SPATHULENOL (30.8%), caryophyllene oxide (8.9%) and germacene D (6.0%) were the major in the oil of T meifolius. Antibacterial activity of both oils against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria was investigated. Both oils showed weak activity against gram-positive bacteria.

Lippia citriodora (syn. Aloysia triphylla), a small tree known as lemon verbena, is used medicinally for its stomachic, diuretic and antispasmodic properties. Plant material was collected from National Botanical Garden of Iran, on 29 September 1998. The essential oils obtained by steam distillation from fresh leaves (0.57%) and flower (0.21%), was analyzed by GC and GC/MS. The main components of the leaf oil were 1, 8-cineole+ limonene (29.6%), geranial (11.0%), neral (7.2%), b-guaiene (6.0%), SPATHULENOL (5.0 %) and caryophyllene oxide (4.0%), and the main components of the flower oil were 1,8-cineole+ limonene (14.2%), geranial (8.6%), b-guaiene (7.4%), neral (6.6 %), caryophyllene oxide (5.6 %), SPATHULENOL (4.5 %) and neryl acetate (3.0%).