Chemotypic diversity of Rosmarinus officinalis L. in the collection of the Nikita Botanical Gardens

Rosmarinus officinalis L. is common in the Mediterranean region and has been widely introduced into culture in gardens and fields of England, France, Italy and other parts of Europe as a spicy and an essential oil plant. Two chemotypes of rosemary that are of industrial importance are Tunisian-Moroccan and Spanish origin. In the Nikita Botanical Gardens (NBG), a high-grade Rosmarinus officinalis cultivar ‘Horizont’ was created. As a raw material, blossoming young shoots are used in the flowering phase to generate an essential oil similar to Spanish (cineole-camphor) chemotypes. Mass fraction of essential oil in May was 0,7% of raw weight and in October – 0.8%. The yield of 3-year-old plants is 40 cwt ha^‑1, 5-year-old plants – up to 80 cwt ha^‑1. The yield of essential oil in plants during the season was 60-65 kg ha^‑1. Under the conditions of the Southern Coast, the plantation can be used for more than 20 years. As the result of the expedition to the Caucasus, 2 samples of rosemary were taken to the collection. The purpose of our research was to study the content and the constituent composition of the essential oil of new Rosmarinus officinalis samples. The mass fraction of essential oil was determined by hydrodistillation on Ginzberg apparatus from freshly collected raw materials. Component composition of the essential oil was studied by chromatographic mass spectrometry on the analytical complex ‘Clarus 600M’ of the firm ‘PerkinElmer’ (USA). The main components of the essential oil of the first sample are borneol (23.21-25.71%), camphor (18.0-19.99%), verbenone (5.92-10.15%), linalool (9.47-9.93%), 1,8-cineole (3.80-6.81%). It corresponds to a camphor chemotype. The second sample was obtained by cuttings from the Institute of Essential Oil Cultures (Sukhum, the Republic of Abkhazia) in 2015. The main components of the second sample essential oil are 1,8-cineole (33.7%), borneol (13.3%), bornyl acetate 8.62), β-pinene (8.50%), α-pinene (6.10%), camphor (5.80%), camphene (3.65%). This analysis confirms the Tunisian-Moroccan (cineole-borneol) chemotypes. Thus, the collection of the NBS-NSC contains three chemotypes of Rosmarinus officinalis: Spanish, Tunisian-Moroccan, borneol that gives an opportunity of the wide use of this culture in various industries.