The composition of the essential oil of the aerial parts of an endemic new species Ferula mervynii Sağıroğlu & H.Duman from Turkey

Abstract

In 2007, Ferula mervynii Sağıroğlu & H.Duman (Apiaceae) was reported as a new species from Turkey. This species finds a natural habitat in Artvin and Erzurum regions that are located in North-Eastern Anatolia [1]. Up to now, there are no reports on the chemistry of this species. However, there are many reports on the essential-oil composition of other Ferula species from Turkey. As an example, F. elaeochytris Korovin essential oil was reported to have nonane (27.1%), α‐pinene (12.7%), and germacrene B (10.3%) as the main components [2], whereas, F. szowitziana D.C. was reported to contain β-eudesmol
(32.0-29.5%), α-eudesmol (18.2-16.6%), and α-pinene (8.6-6.4%) as the major components of the leaf and stem oils, respectively [3]. The current study aimed to provide information on the chemistry of the essential oil of F. mervynii collected from Erzurum, Turkey, in August 2017. The essential oil was obtained by hydrodistillation from air-dried aerial parts of the plant using a Clevenger-type apparatus in the duration of 3 h. The essential-oil yield was determined to be 0.56% (v/w). The oil was diluted with n-hexane 1:10 (v/v) and analyzed as such on an Agilent 5977 MSD GC-MS system. Relative amounts of the separated compounds were calculated from the integration of the peaks in MS chromatograms. Identification of essential-oil components was carried out by comparison of their retention indices (RI), relative to a series of n-alkanes
(C₅ to C₃₀), with the literature values, as well as by mass spectral comparison. The aerial parts essential oil of F. mervynii was rich in monoterpenes. The major components were α-pinene (48.1%), sabinene (20.0%), β-pinene (11.6%), and terpinen-4-ol (2.5%). The highest AChE-inhibitory activity of the oil was found to reach 51±1% of inhibition of the enzyme activity.