Essential oils from Bolivia. XVI. A first look at three endemic Salvia: S. orbignaei, S. haenkei and S. retinervia

Abstract

The genus Salvia, within the Lamiaceae family, is estimated to include more than 900 species. Many are aromatic plants, and the composition of the essential oils of several species is yet to be reported. This study focuses on the compositional study and large quantitative variation amongst the essential oils (EO) from the leaves of three Bolivian endemic species of Salvia: S. orbignaei, S. haenkei and S. retinervia. Thus, one sample of S. orbignaei EO contains 71% of limonene and four others feature at least 40% of sesquiterpenes. While the main fraction of one sample of the EO of S. haenkei is characterized by sesquiterpenes, accounting for 56% of the total; a second sample shows a high fraction of oxygenated sesquitepenes at 47%. As far as S. retinervia is concerned, ?-caryophyllene is a major constituent, accounting for 22 and 31% of the oils. Finally, the identification of some kessyl or kessanyl esters is discussed.