Differential essential oil composition and morphology between perennial Satureja species growing in Spain.

Chemical composition of the essential oils obtained by hydrodistillation from the aerial parts of thirty six samples of perennial Spanish savouries (Satureja montana L., Satureja innota (Pau) G. Lopez, Satureja cuneifolia Ten. and Satureja infricata Lange), was investigated by GC and GC-MS. A total of 72 compounds accounting between 98.25-99.55% of the total oil were identified. High content of carvacrol (59.72 +/- 1.50%) followed by gamma-terpinene (17.40 +/- 1.11%) were found in S. montana essential oils. S. cuneifolia yielded an oil rich in camphor (45.04 +/- 1.67%) and camphene (12.42 +/- 1.71%) whereas S. innota produces an essential oil with linalool (23.94 +/- 7.58%) or geraniol (8.62 +/- 3.45%) according to the locality of collection and S. intricata showed chemical polymorphism with camphor (16.02 +/- 1.75%), as the main compound followed with populations with myrcene (8.46 +/- 1.46%) and populations with gamma-terpinene (8.22 +/- 1.33%). Although the morphological affinity between S. innota, S. cuneifolia and S. infricata could lead to consider the subspecies level, the phytochemical discriminant analysis support the taxonomic classification of Flora Iberica which ranks these taxa into species.