Study of Essential Oils of Some Plants from Algeria (Salvia officinalis, Thymus vulgaris and Ruta chalepensis)

The essential oil of three plants (Salvia officinalis, Thymus vulgaris and Ruta chalepensis) collected from Chlef, in the north west of Algeria, was isolated by steam distillation and investigated by GC and GC/MS. The yield of essential oil (g/100g) was 1.6% for Salvia officinalis, 2.6% for Thymus vulgaris and 1.1% for Ruta chalepensis. The Salvia officinalis was mainly composed of b-thujone (25%), camphor (23.6%), 1,8-cineole (21.5%), viridiflorol (9.5%) and a-thujone (6%). The main constituents of Thymus vulgaris were carvacrol (48.4%), g -terpinene (14.9%), p-cymene (14.7%) and thymol (5.6%) while 2-undecanone (83.2%) constituted the major component of Ruta chalepensis essential oil