Compositional Analysis of Lavandula pinnata Essential Oils

The genus Lavandula includes about thirty species plus a number of intraspecific taxa and hybrids, which are distributed in the Mediterranean area. The traditional use of lavender both as perfume or medicinal plant is known since antiquity. Nowadays several species are extensively cultivated for the extraction of their essential oils (EOs) which are used in manufactured products like cosmetics and perfumes or in phytotherapy. Lavandula pinnata L. f. (syn L. pinnata Lundmark) is a rare species native to the Canary Islands used in folk medicine as relaxant and also a valuable remedy against bites. To the best of our knowledge, EOs from L. pinnata have been very little studied. The present paper reports on the quali- and quantitative compositional profile of the EOs distilled (by a Spring type apparatus) from the aerial parts (flowers and leaves) of this species cultivated in soilless conditions. Chemical analyses by means of GC and GC-MS techniques have indicated that oxygenated monoterpenes are the main constituents of both the flowers (68.30%) and the leaves (83.65%). Carvacrol is the main compound which characterizes the EOs of this species. In addition, discrete amounts of spathulenol (12.22%) and caryophyllene oxide (14.62%) have been detected in flowers EOs, while leaves EOs contained small amounts of carvacrol methyl ether (2.52%).