A chemometric approach to the headspace sampled volatiles of selected Salvia species from Southeastern Serbia

Headspace sampling is a fast, simple and economical way to prepare plant samples for analysis by gas chromatography. For the first time, the composition of the head space volatiles (HSV) of six Salvia species (S. verticillata, S. glutinosa, S. nemorosa, S. aethiopis, S. amplexicaulis and S. officinalis) in the flowering stage and two (S. glutinosa and S. sclarea) in the fruiting stage from Southeastern Serbia was analysed using the GC-FID-MS technique after headspace sampling. The chemical composition of the highly volatile compounds of the analysed species varies considerably. Monoterpene hydrocarbons represented the dominant class of volatile compounds in all the Salvia species, except for S. sclarea and S. aethiopis. The content of sesquiterpenes was the highest in S. aethiopis (96.9%) and S. glutinosa in the flowering phase (29.5%), while in all the other samples that percentage was below 10%. Oxygenated monoterpenes were the most abundant in S. sclarea, where the main component was oxygenated monoterpene linalyl acetate (97.7%). The main component of S. verticillata was β-phellandrene, and its content varied depending on the plant location and sampling time. The main component of S. glutinosa in the flowering phase was limonene (16.6%), and in the fruiting phase sabinene (87.1%). Headspace analysis of the volatile components of S. aethiopis was carried out for the first time and the most abundant detected components were sesquiterpenes: (E)- caryophyllene (36.8%), α-copaene (33.4%) and β-elemene (7.3%). The analysis of the principal components was performed to interpret the grouping patterns, as well as to analyse the similarities and differences between the samples in terms of the composition of the volatile components. The samples were grouped into three clusters. The first cluster consisted of samples of S. verticillata (S1, S4 and S5) from different locations, the second comprised samples of S. glutinosa (S3), S. aethiopis (S8), S. amplexicaulis (S9) and S. officinalis (S10), while samples of S. nemorosa (S7) made up the third cluster. The HS-GC-FID-MS technique can be successfully used for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of volatile compounds of different Salvia species. The obtained results are important for evaluating the possibility of using different types of sage.