Composition of headspace volatiles and essential oils of three Thymus species.

Analysis of head space volatiles (HSV) and hydrodistilled essential oils (EO) of the above-ground parts of Thymus glabrescens Willd., T. praecox Opiz subsp. jankae (Celak.) Jalas (from two localities) and T. pulegoides L. was made by GC-FID and GC-MS. This is the first report on the headspace volatiles composition of T. glabrescens and T. pulegoides. The most abundant compound of T. glabrescens HSV was p-cymene (27.8%) followed by γ-terpinene (18.4%), while thymol (55.4%) and geraniol (10.5%) were the most abundant in the corresponding EO. T. praecox subsp. jankae EO from Serbia was characterized by (E)-caryophyllene (14.6%) and thymol (10.7%), which is substantially different from that of Bulgarian T. praecox subsp. jankae, which contained a-terpinyl acetate (20.1%) and linalool (17.7%) as its main components. The dominating components of the Serbian and Bulgarian T. praecox subsp. jankae HSV were α-pinene (29.4% and 18.6%, respectively), myrcene (12.1% and 23.2%, respectively), limonene (7.5% and 17.8%, respectively) and β-pinene (11.7% and 7.6%, respectively). Linalyl acetate predominated in T. pulegoides EO and HSV, representing 40.0% and 42.4% (respectively) of the total peak area. The chemical composition of the essential oils of the examined Thymus species could not be attributed to any particular recorded chemotype of T. glabrescens, T. praecox and T. pulegoides.