Morphological Variability and Essential Oil Composition of fourOcimum basilicumL. cultivars

This study characterized the morphological variability as well as essential oil composition of four sweet basil cultivars growing in south-eastern Poland. The cultivars displayed a wide diversity of morphological and chemical characteristics. Oil content of the tested plants varied from 0.91 % to 1.75 % in air-dry herbage. The essential oil composition was analyzed by means of GC-MS and GC-FID techniques. Sixty six components were found, representing 100 % of the essential oil. Linalool was the most abundant component (29.6 %-77.5 %), followed by methyl chavicol (0.3 %-32.5 %), eugenol (null to 27.6 %), (E)- methyl cinnamate (null to 11.2 %), 1,8-cineole (1.0 %-9.4 %), α-cadinol (2.8 %-6.5 %) and germacrene D (2.1 %-4.1 %).