CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF SALVIA OFFICINALIS ESSENTIAL OIL FROM VLORA DISTRICT OF ALBANIA

The chemical composition of the volatile oil of Salvia officinalis growing wild from Vlora District has been investigated. The essential oil was obtained by hydrodistillation and its analyses were performed by GC?MS. The chemical composition showed that the monoterpene hydrocarbons fraction 50.6% was the most abundant in the volatile oil from sage represented by camphor 45.9% as the dominant component. In addition, the oxygenated monoterpene was present by 41.0%; the principal costituents of this fraction were α-thujone 13.7%, followed by eucalyptol 6.0%. Camphene 3.9% and borneol 5.7% were also identified in significant quantity and β-caryophyllene 2.4%. α-humulene being the dominant components of the sesquiterpene hydrocarbon fraction 6.5%. Furthermore, the oxygenated sesquiterpene fraction was present in minor quantity 1.0% whereas bornyl acetate was found in significant amount 5.6%. Moreover, the essential oil was tested for their free radical scavenging activity using the following in vitro assays: i) interaction with the free stable radical of DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl), ii) inhibition of linoleic acid peroxidation with the dihydrochlroic acid of 2,2'-azobis-2-methyl-propanimidamide, dihydrochloride (AAPH). Finally, their inhibitory activity toward soybean lipoxygenase was evaluated, using linoleic acid as substrate. The essential oil of S. officinalis (SO-VL) has presented the 39.64% interaction with the stable radical DPPH it also showed high anti-lipid peroxidation activity, 69.12%. The tested sample does not inhibit soybean lipoxygenase.