Essential oils from micropropagated plants of Lavandula viridis

The essential oils of Lavandula viridis were analysed by GC and GC-MS. Comparisons were made between three types of plant material from the same clone: field-grown plant, in vitro shoot cultures and micropropagated plants of the same clone. The most common components usually found in lavender oils were present in the oil samples analysed and more than 45 constituents were identified, representing more than 80% of the essential oil. The essential oils analysed consisted mainly of monoterpenes (75.4-76.3%), where oxygenated and hydrocarbons identified ranged from 41.8 to 57.3% and 18.1 to 34.2%, respectively. The major components found were 1.8-cineole (18.2-25.1%), camphor (9.1-15.7%), alpha-pinene (8.8-14.1%), borneol (4.1-4.8%), beta-pinene (1.2-5.6%), delta 3-carene (1.0-6.5%) and alpha-terpineol (0.8-4.2%). The monoterpene fraction of the in vitro shoot cultures showed different relative amounts of hydrocarbons and oxygenated components in relation to the parent plant and to micropropagated plants. In the sesquiterpene hydrocarbon fraction of the oil samples analysed (6.1-8.2%), 7-epi-alpha-selinene (1.6-4.8%) was the most important component and the oxygenated sesquiterpenes were found in small amounts (1.1-1.7%). The essential oils from field-grown plants of L. viridis, when compared with those obtained from in vitro shoot cultures or micropropagated plants of the same clone, demonstrated that the same major components were found without significant compositional variations.