The first report on the screening of the GC/MS profiles of the hydrodistilled essential oils and volatile components from the aerial parts of Verbascum sinuatum L. (Scrophulariaceae)

This study elucidates the chemical composition of the essential oil and volatile fractions from the aerial parts of Verbascum sinuatum L. using classical hydrodistillation (CHD) and headspace-solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) techniques, identifying 23 compounds via GC-MS analysis. In the CHD essential oil, non-terpene hydrocarbons (NH) predominated at 64.8%, followed by oxygenated diterpenes (OD) at 14.2%, sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (SH) at 8.0%, and oxygenated sesquiterpenes (OS) at 7.8%. The principal constituents were hexadecanoic acid (28.9%), phytol (14.2%), and linoleic acid (7.3%), accounting for 94.8% of the total. On the other hand, HS-SPME profiles emphasized NH (70.1%) and OS (19.1%), with hexadecanoic acid (49.3%), (E)-phytol acetate (8.1%), n-heneicosane (4.1%), and spathulenol (4.0%) comprising 92.5% overall. These findings reveal method-dependent variations in terpenoid and fatty acid content, highlighting CHD's efficacy in extracting higher quantities of oxygenated diterpenes and HS-SPME's sensitivity to volatiles, offering insights into phytochemical diversity for potential pharmacological applications.