DRAGAN T. VELICKOVIC¹*, MIHAILO S. RISTIC², NEBOJŠA P. MILOSAVLJEVIC¹, DEJAN N. DAVIDOVIC¹, SVETLANA Z. BOGDANOVIC¹
*Corresponding author
1. College of Agriculture and Food Technology, 1 Cirila i Metodija St, 18400 Prokuplje, Serbia
2. Institute for Medicinal Plant Research “Dr. Josif Pancic”, 1 Tadeuša Košcuška St, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia

Abstract

The chemical composition of the essential oil Salvia argentea L. was analyzed by GC-FID and GC-MS. Unlike the monoterpenoid fraction whose proportion is negligible (only linalool 0.6 percent), the oil is rich in sesquiterpenoids (about 70 percent) with 37.6 percent caryophyllene oxide, 8.5 percent u-copaene, 6.1 percent (E)-caryophyllene, 3.9 percent germacrene D and 3.0 percent cadalene, as the most abundant ones. By comparison of the chemical composition of the essential oil Salvia argentea with the composition of the oil of garden sage (Salvia officinalis), which is known for its use in culinary and food industry, as well as other activities (antioxidant, antimicrobial), some differences and similarities can be observed. The oil S. officinalis is richer in monoterpenoid fraction. In contrast, the components which are characteristic for the oil Salvia argentea (caryophyllene oxide, -copaene and (E)-caryophyllene), are not characteristic for the garden sage oil where occur in a small percentages. Cis- and trans-thujone were not identified in the oil Salvia argentea. Certain substances have been identified in both oils.

INTRODUCTION

All food is made from natural materials which will deteriorate in time. Spoilage, in every way, will usually modify the quality of foods and could be caused by a number of factors (biological, chemical, physical). One popular method of food preservation is the addition of food additives. Although the list of additives in food industry is very wide, nowadays there are certain problems during their production and usage. For that reason it is necessary to find new and reliable additives to preserve food, where certain plant species obtain their role as preserving agents (1).
Use of aromatic (medicinal) plants has recently become of great importance in the race with synthetic drugs and additives in food. Between them genus Salvia L. takes special place, with over 900 species worldwide (2). Flora of Serbia comprises 14 species of this genus (3).
Garden sage (Salvia officinalis L.) as the most popular of them, is very well known in the folk medicine due to its antibacterial (4-6) and antioxidant properties (7-9), in the production of tea mixtures (10), UV radiation prevention (11), treatment of Alzheimer’s (12) and HIV ( ...