Fatty acid composition of stems, leaves, flowers, and seeds of some medicinal plants

Abstract

Medicinal plant species are economically important and have many uses. In this research, the stem, leaves, flowers, and seeds of some medicinal plant species such as Lavandula intermedia, Satureja hortensis and Ocimum basilicum were analysed. The fatty acid compositions of these three different species were determined by gas chromatography of methyl esters of fatty acids. The stem, leaf, flower, and seed oils of L. intermedia contain 44.72%, 45.11%, 29.89% and 8.55% palmitic acid and 16.18%, 23.21%, 34.76% and 39.76% linolenic acid, respectively, as the main component fatty acids, while the stem, leaf, flower and seed oils of S. hortensis contain 23.11%, 11.76%, 13.32% and 6.26% palmitic acid and 31.70%, 51.74%, 47.97% and 43.79% linolenic acid, respectively, as main component fatty acids. On the other hand, stem, leaf, flower, and seed oils of O. basilicum contain 44.72%, 45.11%, 29.89% and 8.55% palmitic acid and linolenic acid 16.18%, 23.21%, 34.76% and 39.76%, respectively, as main component fatty acids.