Effect of Post Harvest Storage on the Oil Constituents of Laurus Nobilis L. Plant

The final product of medicinal and aromatic plants depends on the quality of farming systems and manufacturing processes, in addition to the treatment of post-harvest. Storage is an important factor to maintain the quality and safety of medicinal and aromatic plants. This study focused on the comparison of the best ways to store Laurusnobilis L. essential oil, whether to store it in the form of essential oils or keep it inside the dry herb until extracting by hydrodistillation. This experiment consists of two parts, the first is storing the distilled oil under cool conditions, while, the second is the volatile oil which stored inside the herb in bags of cartoon and stored in a dry place until extracting. In all cases the essential oil was analyzed by GC/MS every four months for one year. The fresh essential oil (at zero time) consist of approximately 56.83% 1,8- cineole. Other major constituents of oxygenated monoterpens were α-terpenyl acetate (13.47 %), trans-beta-terpineol (4.96%) and terpinen-4-ol (3.19). while, α-pinene and sabinene were (4.09 and 6.94%) respectively. On the other hand the constituents of cis linalool oxide, isobornyl acetate and β--elemene were identified in concentrations above 1%. The essential oil constituents changes during storage time depend on the storage conditions. The largest change in essential oil constituents for the dry herb was observed after storage period of one year, while this change was less after storage period of four month.Also, oil compounds were more stable during the first eight months of the herb storage, then it reduced after that. At the same time, some changes have been recorded in the chemical composition of L. nobilis essential oil stored under cooling conditions due to the duration of storage.