Chemical Composition of the Essential Oil from the Aerial Parts of Ixiolirion tataricum (Pall.) Herb.

The genus Ixiolirion, belonging to the Amaryllidaceae family, contains about 3 species distributed in center and southwest of Asia and northeast of Africa. The Iranian flora consists of only one bulbous flowering species; Ixiolirion tataricum (Pall.) Herb., with the Persian name of “Khiarak”. In the present work, I. tataricum was collected, during the flowering stage, from the Sarduiyeh area in Jiroft, Kerman Province, Iran in April 2012. The essential oil of the aerial parts of the plant was extracted using hydrodistillation method and analyzed by GC and GC-MS. Thirty-five compounds were identified in the essential oil, representing 85.2% of the total oil detected. The main constituents were 2-phenylethyl phenylacetate (16.8%), β-selinene (14.8%), bicyclovetivenol (4.8%), thymol (4.3%) and (E)-chalcone (4.3%). Consequently, nonterpenoids (44.2%) were the major group of components in the essential oil of the plant.