Essential oil composition of Salvia nemorosa cv. “May Night” cultivated in Kuna, Idaho

Abstract

Salvia nemorosa is a popular landscape plant that is attractive to pollinators. In this work, Salvia nemorosa cv. “May Night” was collected from two different years, 2023 and 2024. The essential oil was obtained by hydrodistillation and analyzed by gas chromatographic methods. The major components from the 2023 sample were (E)-?-caryophyllene (22.4%), sabinene (18.4%), germacrene D (17.1%), and caryophyllene oxide (5.7%). In contrast, the major components in the 2024 sample were sabinene (29.9%) and germacrene D (18.1%), along with large concentrations of two diterpenoids, levopimaradiene and levopimarinal (9.0% and 8.1%, respectively), but low concentrations of (E)-?-caryophyllene (0.3%) and caryophyllene oxide (0.1%). Multivariate analyses of S. nemorosa essential oils from this work and from the literature reveal vast differences in compositions and at least three different chemical groupings (a sabinene-rich group, a (E)-?-caryophyllene-rich group, and a spathulenol/caryophyllene oxide group).