Determination of the Chemical Composition of Volatile Oils of Plants Using Superheated Water Extraction with Comprehensive Gas Chromatography-Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry

Plants or plant extracts can be used in traditional medical remedies. Plants have evolved the ability to synthesize chemical compounds that help them defend against attack from a wide variety of predators such as insects, fungi and herbivorous mammals. By chance, some of these compounds, whilst being toxic to plant predators, turn out to have beneficial effects when used to treat human diseases. Herbal medicines do not differ greatly from conventional drugs in terms of how they work. Many of the herbs and spices used by humans to season food yield useful medicinal compounds. They are of great economic importance which is not only related to their use as a spice or herbal tea. In fact, many of the medicinal plants are used traditionally in many other ways as their essential oils have antimicrobial, antifungal and antioxidant activity. Volatile oils of plants, also known as essential oils, often contain a mixture of flavour, fragrant and medicinal compounds. They contain complex mixtures including monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes and their oxygenated derivatives such as aliphatic aldehydes, alcohols and esters (Simandi et al., 1998; Vokou et al, 1998; Ozel et al., 2003; Ozel et al., 2006; Ozel & Kutlular, 2011).