Chemical characterisation of Thymus populations belonging from Southern Italy

The genus Thymus L consists of many species of herbaceous perennials and sub-shrubs A chemical characterisation of a collection of Thymus spp originated from regions of Southern Italy was performed using GC and GC/MS The accessions were collected from various natural habitats of the Basilicata and Puglia Regions and transferred into a new uniform environment The study showed that amongst the 22 components of the oils the most recurrent ones were geraniol thymol and alpha-terpinene followed by linalool citral and trans-caryophillene Cluster analysis led to the identification of two chemotypes geraniol and thymol/alpha-terpinene only a biotype remained separate from all others probably because of its high content linalool (58%) (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved