EVALUATION OF THE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF ESSENTIAL OILS FROM LEAVES OF SUDANESE OCIMUM GRATISSIMUM AND OCIMUM BASILICUM.

The genus Ocimum (Lamiaceae) involves economically the most important medicinal and aromatic herbs and comprises more than 150 species distributed in tropical and subtropical regions. The objective of this research is to investigate the chemical constituents in the essential oils from leaves of O. gratissimum and O. basilicum grown in Sudan. The essential oils from the leaves were obtained by hydro-distillation method and analyzed by GC-MS. The yield of the hydro-distilled essential oils obtained from leaves of O. gratissimum and O. basilicum L. were 0.5% and 0.8% (v/w) respectively. Twenty four compounds were detected in O. gratissimum oil; eugenol (41.74 %), caryophellene (21.99 %), isocaryophellene (12.36%), piperitone (3.43%) and methyl chavicol (2.74%) were the major constituent identified. Thirty nine compounds were detected in O. basilicum oil; methyl chavicol (39.26%), linalool (17.41 %), 1,8-cineole (5.75%) and m-eugenol (3.51%) were the major constituent identified. It could be concluded that O. gratissimum and O. basilicum cultivated in Sudan could be classified as eugenol/caryophellene chemotype and methyl chavicol (estragole) chemotype, respectively.