The chemical investigation of North African Salvia taraxacifolia Coss. & Balansa and Salvia lanigera Poir. essential oils

The Salvia genus, one of the largest in the Lamiaceae family, is present in North Africa with 27 different taxa. In this study, the chemical composition of Salvia lanigera and Salvia taraxacifolia essential oils (EOs) was studied. The latter species has never been investigated. The two EOs, extracted by hydro-distillation and analysed by GC-MS, were rich in terpenoids. Monoterpene hydrocarbons were the major chemical group of S. lanigera (88.0%) (12), while S. taraxacifolia EO (18), consisted of monoterpene hydrocarbons (35.7%), with limonene (24.9%) as the most abundant compound, while β-cubebene (22.7%) was identified as primary hydrocarbon sesquiterpene compound (38.7%). Furthermore, statistical analyses such as hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and principal component analysis (PCA), employed to highlight similarities or dissimilarities between Salvia taxa, showed clear divergences between chemical and botanical classification.