Maryam Pourramezani Harati - Young Researchers and Elite Club, Kahnooj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Kahnooj, Iran
Amin Ganjali - Department of Experimental Science, Islamic Azad University, Kahnooj Branch, Kahnooj, Iran
Massoud Kaykhaii - Department of Chemistry, University of Sistan and Baluchestan, Zahedan, Iran

The chemical composition of the hydro distilled essential oil of the air dried aerial parts of Satureja hortensis growing wild in Iran was obtained by hydro distillation and was analyzed by gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Hydro distilled aerial parts of S.hortensis yielded 1.1% (w/w) of essential oil. 24 constituents representing 100% of total oil have been identified. The main constituents of the oil were found to thymol(44.30%), carvacrol(16.37%), gama-terpinene(15.28%)andalpha-terpinene(7.38%).Other representative compounds were identified as p-cymene (2.37%), 1, 8- cineole(1.93%), β-myrcene (1.86%), α- phellandrene (1.62%) and γ-cadinene (1.22%).

Satureja hortensis; essential oil; GC-MS analysis