Grazing affects essential oil compositions of Artemisia sieberi Besser

This study was conducted in order to study the effect of grazing on quality and quantity of Artemisia sieberi essential oil in Kerman province of Iran. Vegetation sites of Artemisia sieberi under three grazing intensity (heavy, moderate and non-grazed) with the same ecological conditions were selected based on distance of water resource and nomad tent in Khabre National Park and near rangelands. Within each sits, two individual plants sampled at random in full flowering stage. The oils were obtained by hydrodistillation of air-dried samples and were analyzed by GC-MS. The main constituents of oils were as follows: non-grazed site; 1,8cineol (29.9%), myrcene (14.1%), moderate grazed site; myrcene (15.9%), 1,8cineol (15.1%), Eudesm-7(11)-en-4-ol (11.1%) and heavy grazed site; 4-tepinyl acetate (23.3%), davanone (21.9%), p-cymene (19%).