essential oil analysis of fresh aerial part of iranian ocimum sanctum l. by hydro & steam distillation

the genus ocimum l. belonging to family of lamiaceae is widely distributed in iran, ocimum sanctum l. is described in many medicinal properties and a wide therapeutic range. it is used specially in the management of cough, ashtma, fever and common cold. in this research, samples were collected from shahr-e-rey, on august 2013, then essential oils were extracted by  hydro-distillation and steam distillation methods, and their chemical composition were investigated by gc/ms. main components obtained from hydro-distillation were  methyl chavicol (26.86%) , linalool (17.76%), epi- α-cadinol (13.12%) in flowers and methyl chavicol (27.64%) , epi- α-cadinol (11.5%) in leaves, and also main components obtained from steam distillation were methyl chavicol (25.2%) , linalool (17.65%), germacrene d (6.87%) in flowers and  methyl chavicol (38.96%), linalool (12.13%) in leaves, respectively. methyl chavicol was the main constituent in all essential oils.