Salvia, the largest genus of the Labiaceae family includes about 900 species widespread all over the world. In this genus, section Salvia contains the richest in essential oils Salvia species. Some members of this section, like S. officinalis and S. fruticosa, are of economical importance as flavouring agents in perfumery and cosmetology. Sage has been credited with a long list of medicinal uses: spasmolytic, antiseptic, astringent (Newall et al., 1996).
In our continuing research on the essential oils of Greek plants, we have investigated the essential oil of Salvia ringens Sibth. & Sm. and its biological activity.
Wild growing plants were collected during anthesis in 1998 and 1999. The essential oils were obtained from the air-dried leaves and analysed by GC and GC-MS. The identification of the chemical constituents was based on comparisons of their relative retention times and mass spectra with those obtained from authentic samples and/or libraries spectra.
Seventy-five constituents were identified from the oils of S. ringens representing 99.82% and 99.86% of the total oil. The S. ringens oils contained high quantities of monoterpenic alcohols (64.94%, 57%) and monoterpene hydrocarbons (25.06%, 27.57%). The major constituents were 1,8-cineole (50.74-46.42%), a-pinene (10.64-12.85%), bornyl acetate (6.54-4.53) and b-pinene (4.34-5.64%).
The in vitro antibacterial activity of the essential oil (collection 1999) was tested against six Gram bacteria (±) using the dilution technique and the antifungal activity was tested against three pathogenic fungi.
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