chemical composition of the volatile oils of three lamiaceae species growing wild in north of iran

background & aim: the lamiaceae or labiatae (commonly referred to as the mint or deadnettle family) are an exceedingly large and widespread of flowering plants (angiospermae). most member of lamiaceae plants are used in iranian folk medicine as stimulant, antiseptic, aphrodisiac, stomachic, expectorant, carminative, anti-diarrheic and anti-bacterial. the aim of the present work was to obtain a better insight into the nature of essential oil. experimental: the essences of three lamiaceae species viz., satureja macrantha c.a. mey., ziziphora persica bunge, and lavandula stoechas l. obtained by hydrodistillation method of flowers growing wild in the north of iran. the study led to the identification of 67 components by a combination hp-5 gc-fid and gc-ms analytical techniques and the oil yields were 1.3 %, 1.64 %, and 1.16 % on fresh flowers, respectively. results & discussion: the chemical components of s. macrantha were found to contain mainly: carvacrol (43.3 %), g-terpinene (24.1 %) and p-cymene (21.6 %). on the other hand the major oil components for z. persica were isopulegone (46.6 %), followed by p-mentha-1(7),8-diene (16.4 %), 1,8-cineole (7.0 %), isomenthol (5.5 %) and isoledene (3.3 %), accounting for 98.0 % of the total components. camphor (61.5 %), 1,8-cineole (10.1 %), fenchone (4.2 %) and linalool (3.8 %) were found to be the major constituents of the oil of l. stoechas. the essential oils of s. macrantha, z. persica, and l. stoechaswere identified by much larger amount of monoterpenes (96.52 %, 89.31 %, and 93.49 %, respectively) and sesquiterpenes (1.87 %, 8.10 %, and 5.04 %, respectively). industrial and practical recommendations: based on the results of this study, the chemical variations of threevolatile oils might be correlated with geographical regions and environmental conditions (temperature, humidity, interaction with other species and etc.) play a significant role in biosynthesis of the components of the oil