In-Depth Analysis of the Essential Oil of Achillea erba-rotta subsp. moschata (Asteraceae)

Achillea erba-rotta subsp. moschata (Wulfen) Vacc. (Sin.: A. moschata Wulfen) is a plant belonging to the Asteraceae family and is traditionally used for its medicinal and aromatic properties. Nowadays, it is primarily used as an ingredient of several commercial liqueurs. The essential oil from a representative number of A. erba-rotta subsp. moschata plants collected from the Eastern Italian Alps and cultivated in the same experimental conditions were investigated by GC/FID and GC/MS methods. A great variability among analyzed plant samples was recorded for the essential oil qualitative and quantitative composition. Oxygenated monoterpenes were the main class of detected compounds, of which cis- and trans-thujones (from nil to 85.5% of the total oil), camphor (from 0.2 to 55.6%) and 1,8-cineol (from 0.3 to 19.7%) were the most abundant. Among sesquiterpenes, the group of caryophyllenes, including caryophyllene and its oxygenate derivatives, were quoted from 3.3 to 29.9%, while β-eudesmol comprised from nil to 16.9% of the total oil. Given the known toxicity of thujones for human consumption, the results of this study are of particular importance for selecting plants with lower thujone content in the framework of a possible breeding program.