The composition of the leaf essential oils of J. sabina var. balkanensis: comparison between oils from central Italy with oils from Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey

The composition of the leaf oil of J. sabina var. balkanensis from central Italy was compared to volatile leaf oils from Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey, as well as J. sabina var. sabina from Switzerland, Pyrenees, and Kazakhstan. The leaf oils in central Italy had chemotypes with some plants of J. sabina var. balkanensis oils with high sabinene (HiSab, 28.4 - 40.2%), low trans-sabinyl acetate chemotype (LoTSac) and other plants with the low sabinene (LoSab, 9.6 - 14.8%), high trans-sabinyl acetate (HiTSac, 36.0 - 47.4%) chemotype. These same chemotype patterns were also found in Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey. There appear to be no consistent chemical differences between the oils of var. balkanensis in Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey and the oil from central Italy. The lack of chemical differentiation between eastern (Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey) and western (Italy) var. balkanensis populations may reflect the recent origin of var. balkanensis or gene flow. Comparing the compositions of the leaf essential oils of central Italy (var. balkanensis) with oils of J. sabina var. sabina, from Pyrenees, and Switzerland revealed oils of J. s. var. balkanensis differ only slightly from J. s. var. sabina, Switzerland and Pyrenees. The presence of chemotypes in var. balkanensis populations make it very difficult to determine any differences among var. balkanensis populations and between var. balkanensis and var. sabina oils.