First Report on Screening of the Profiles of the Essential Oils and Volatiles from the Aerial Parts of Marrubium persicum Using Classical and Advanced Methods Prior to Gas Chromatographic Mass Spectrometric Determination

The Lamiaceae family consists of a broad spectrum of medicinal plants involving Marrubium L. genus. Regarding the diverse pharmaceutical uses of the plants belonging to this genus, they can be considered as proper alternatives for chemical drugs having harmful effects. The present work aims to identify and characterize chemical compositions of the essential oils and volatiles from the aerial parts of Marrubium persicum C. A. Mey. as an herbal plant in Iran using classical hydrodistillation. To establish a comprehensive comparison between the traditional techniques and advanced ones, microwave-based extraction techniques namely MAHD as well as SFME have also been utilized. In another part of this project, the profiles related to the volatile fractions from the aerial parts of Marrubium persicum C. A. Mey.have been assessed and compared with the other categories. The main components in the hydrodistillation (HD) method were α-pinene (21.5%), spathulenol (19.5%), α-thujene (17.4%), while the headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) profile mainly consisted of β-caryophyllene (14%), eugenol (11.2%) and methyl eugenol (10.2%). On the other hand, using the SFME approach spathulenol (25.4%), α-pinene (17.4%) and germacrene D (9.5%) were found as the most abundant constituents. Moreover, in the MAHD profile caryophyllene oxide (13.1%), δ-elemene (12.4%), camphene (8.5%) were respectively the predominant natural compounds. According to gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric determinations, a total of 40 compounds were recognized in the corresponding profiles totally covering 94.6-99.7% of the whole chemical compositions. Sesquiterpene hydrocarbons were recognized as the most frequent groups of natural compounds in the profiles of the advanced approaches, whereas in the traditional one monoterpene hydrocarbons were found to be the dominant constituting group.