CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF THE ESSENTIAL OIL OF CLADANTHUS SCARIOSUS(ASTERACEAE) WILD GROWN IN MOROCCO

Cladanthus Cass. [Syn. Ormenis (Cass.) Cass.] is a genus of the family Asteraceae, endemic to the Mediterranean region and related to the tribe Anthemideae (1). It comprises 15 species including C. scariosus (Ball) Oberpr. & Vogt [Bas. Santolina scariosa; Syn. Ormenis scariosa Litard. & Maire] from Morocco where is concentrates 1/3 of the species of the genus (2). Some of these are perennial, suffruticose and strongly aromatic plants. C. mixta (L.) Chev. is used in Morocco as chamomile and this is commonly called Moroccan chamomile. In the same country, C scariosus is fairly common in open places, on sandstone substrates (3) and is characterized by a strong aromatic character, this has motivated the authors – some of which were previously occupied by other species of the same genus (4) – to undertake such study phytochemical. In this study, the authors present the results of chemical composition of the essential oil of Cladanthus scariosus wild grown in many regions of Morocco (5). Hydrodistillation of C. scariosus aerial parts, collected on the thermo-mediterranean belt of the central High Atlas – Oukeimeden, from Marrakech to Quarzazate – during the flowering phase gave a pale yellow oil. Overall, sixty-four compounds were identified, representing 92.7% of the total components. The main class of the oil was represented by sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (39.8%) with germacrene D (20.7%) as the most abundant component of the class and of the oil. Monoterpene hydrocarbons, oxygenated monoterpenes and oxygenated sesquiterpenes were present in similar amount (14.8%-15.1%). In these classes the main products were α-pinene (4.8%) and sabinene (6.9%) among the monoterpene hydrocarbons, (E)-chrysanthenyl acetate (8.3%) among the oxygenated monoterpenes and τ –muurolol (4.2%) and (E,E)-farnesyl acetate (3.9%) among the oxygenated sesquiterpenes. It is also noteworthy the good presence of chamazulene (7.1%).