Essential Oil of Origanum vulgare ssp. vulgare L. and Origanum vulgare ssp. hirtum (Link) Ietswaart from Moldova: Content and Chemical Composition

Different genotypes of Origanum vulgare ssp. vulgare L. and Origanum vulgare L. ssp. hirtum (Link) Ietswaart have been evaluated. The quantitative characters vary in dependence of genotypes and subspecies. The plants height is 65-80 cm that is composed from 100-115 floral stems for ssp. vulgare and 120-240 for ssp. hirtum. Inflorescences of O.vulgare ssp. vulgare have 15-18 ramifications, O.vulgare ssp. hirtum - 20-30. Flowers are white (ssp. hirtum) or pink (ssp. vulgare). The content of essential oil separated by hydrodistillation in case of O.vulgare ssp. vulgare varies between 0.108% and 0.249% and O.vulgare ssp. hirtum 2.409% - 5.422%. GC GC-MS analysis attested 41 mono- and sesquiterpenes for O.vulgare ssp. vulgare, which constitutes 97.78% of the oil. The O. vulgare ssp. hirtum essential oils is composed from 24 to 31 components depending on the genotype. The range of identification is 99.07-99.90%. Germacrene D (17.01%); B-caryophyllene (13.05%); carvacrol (11.65%); sabinene (9.78%); trans- ocimene (9.38%); cis -ocimene (6.03%), and ?-elemene (4.10%) are the major components of O.vulgare ssp. vulgare oil. Essential oil of all genotypes of O.vulgare ssp. vulgare represents one chemotype-germacrene D/B-caryophyllene/carvacrol/trans-& cis-ocimene/?-elemene. The major components of the essential oil of the O.vulgare ssp. hirtum genotypes include carvacrol (67.67-85.85%), p-cymene (3.64-9.33%) or ?-terpinene (8.22%). Thus, the O.vulgare ssp. hirtum genotypes are divided into three chemotypes: carvacrol/p-cymene; carvacrol/p-cymene/?-terpinene; carvacrol/?-terpinene/p-cymene.