Study of the Chemical Compositions of the Ocimum basilicum family Lamiaceae

Background Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the essential oil of Ocimum and to find out the chemical constituents of essential oils of Yemeni Ocimum basilicum Lamiaceae. Methods Materials: Two samples of Ocimum basilicum which were collected from Sana’a region, Yemen. The color of leaves was green and purple. Oils were isolated from fresh leaves. The constituents are quantified using Gas Chromatograph equipped withMass Spectrometry. Results: The analysis of the oils resulted in the identification of twenty six constituents. Fifteen constituents were identified from green phenotype oil. Linalool (46.6%), verbenone, (10.0%), methyl chavicol (8.1%), geraniol (7.3%), 1, 8-cineole (7.1%) and borneol (4.3%) were found to be the major constituents in the oil distilled from green phenotype. Eleven constituents were identified from purple phenotype oil with linalool (41.8%), methyl chavicol (30.9%), 1, 8-cineole (9.7%) and τ-cadinol (4.2%) as the major constituents. Conclusion: The study revealed that two chemo-types were identified. The isolated oils could be classified as the linalool – methyl chavicol (European chemotype) and linalool-verbenone –methyl chavicol chemotype, which to the best of our knowledge has not been reported so far.