Evaluation of caraway essential oil from different production areas of Serbia

Caraway fruits contain essential oils that give caraway its characteristic aroma. This paper evaluates quantity and composition of the essential oil from the annual caraway grown in different production areas of Serbia. Experiments were conducted in three production areas: Banat, Backa and Srem, during two years. The fruits contained 3.95% of oil on average. The highest content of essential oil was obtained in the production area of Banat, a part of Serbia where environmental conditions are very favourable for cultivation of medicinal plants. Weather conditions have not a significant influence on the content of essential oil in caraway fruits. However, weather conditions as well as production region had a great influence on seed yield and essential oil yield. There were 22 compounds determined in caraway essential oil by GC/MS. The main components were carvone and limonene, whose mixture constituted from 97.69 to 98.62% of total oil composition. Carvone/limonene ratio was 0.58% on average, therefore, it can be concluded that this annual caraway belongs to limonene chemotype