Assessment of volatile compounds as potential markers of water deficit stress of two wild ecotypes of Salvia reuterana Boiss

Overall 90 volatile compoundswere recognized in well-watered and mild drought-stressed samples of two wild Iranian ecotypes of S. reuterana Boiss., namely S. reuterana A and S. reuterana B, and of S. officinalis L. (control) during the main phenological stages (vegetative, pre-flowering and flowering). In water-stressed S. officinalis the total level of volatiles increased (50,03%) at the vegetative stage, while it decreased (-11,11%) at the flowering stage. In drought-stressed S. reuterana A, volatiles amount decreased both at vegetative (-74,62%) and pre-flowering (-31,34%) stages, whereas control and water-stressed S. reuterana B showed similar volatile levels in all the stages. The Orthogonal Partial Least-Squares Discriminant Analysis (OPLS-DA) revealed that, excluding S. officinalis at the flowering stage, control and drought-stressed samples can be differentiated based on their volatile contents and despite the phenological stage. Moreover, OPLS-DA indicated that linalool and p-methylanisole can be considered putative biomarkers of the water deficit conditions in S. officinalis and S. reuterana A. Finally, as, when cultivated, S. reuterana A and S. officinalis seemed to show similar volatiles patterns, the cultivation of the Iranian ecotype A could provide a valuable source of natural antioxidants for the preparation of novel functional foods, pharmaceutical and cosmetics ingredients.