Rosmarinus Officinalis Leaves as a Natural Source of Bioactive Compounds

In an extensive search for bioactive compounds from plant sources, the composition of different extracts of rosemary leaves collected from different geographical zones of Serbia was studied. The qualitative and quantitative characterization of 20 rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) samples, obtained by microwave-assisted extraction (MAE), was determined by high performance liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray quadrupole-time of flight mass spectrometry (HPLC–ESI-QTOF-MS). The high mass accuracy and true isotopic pattern in both MS and MS/MS spectra provided by the QTOF-MS analyzer enabled the characterization of a wide range of phenolic compounds in the extracts, including flavonoids, phenolic diterpenes and abietan-type triterpenoids, among others. According to the data compiled, rosemary samples from Sokobanja presented the highest levels in flavonoids and other compounds such as carnosol, rosmaridiphenol, rosmadial, rosmarinic acid, and carnosic acid. On the other hand, higher contents in triterpenes were found in the extracts of rosemary from Gložan (Vojvodina).This work was financially supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia through a national project (Project Number TR 31014) and through scientific and technological cooperation between the Republic of Serbia and Spain (Project Number RE451-03-02635/2011-14/4). The authors are also grateful to the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation for the project AGL2011-29857-C03-02 and the grant FPI BES-2009-028128, Andalusian Regional Government Council of Innovation and Science for the Excellence Projects P09-CTS-4564, P10-FQM-6563 and P11-CTS-762