Investigating the variation of essential oil content and composition of Moldavian balm in several areas of East and West Azerbaijan provinces

Moldavian balm (Dracocephalum moldavica L.) is an annual medicinal plant that belongs to the Labiate family. The essential oil of Moldavian balm has natural antibacterial, antimicrobial and Healing of wounds. The essential oil of Moldavian balm having wide usage in industries like pharmaceutical, dietary and many others. Medicinal herbs are rich reservoirs of secondary metabolites and the active ingredients of many medications. Although these material basically created with genetic process but making them significantly affected by environmental factors. Due to the effect of environmental factors on the essential oil content and composition of medicinal plants and importance of Moldavian balm in food and cosmetics industry also due to the lack of sufficient information in this case, this research was studied about effect of environmental factors on essential oil content and composition of Moldavian balm.
To determine the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of five Moldavian balm populations at five locations, an experiment was conducted as completely randomized design with three replications during 2013. In all regions, sampling were done in full flowering stage. In each region three samples were analyzed and these locations were Salmas, Urmia, Khoy, Maragheh and Tabriz. Cultivar of szk-1, as a control treatment, was planted in the Research Field of Payam Noor University (PNU) in Marand. In each location, flowering branches of Moldavian balm were collected in full flowering stage. In this study were measured contents and composition of essential oil. After drying the aerial parts of plant in shade, their essential oils were obtained by hydro-distillation. The oils were analyzed by GC and GC-MS.
The results showed that effect of population was significant at 5% on essential oil content. The highest (6.10) and the lowest (4.0) essential oil were obtained in Salmas and Tabriz populations respectively. In total thirteen composition were identified of populations collected from different regions and modern cultivar. Total compounds detected varied from 87.3 to 96 percent .The major components of the essential oil were Geraniol, Geranial, Nerol and Geranyl acetate. The highest and the lowest total amount of Neral Geraniol Geraniol were in Tabriz 57.3% and Maragheh 33.9 % population respectively. Also, Population of Maragheh (57.3%) and Tabriz (23.6%) produced the highest and the lowest amount of Geranyl acetate respectively.
Salmas and Tabriz population produced the highest percentage and the essential oil composition respectively. In general, with selection of these two populations can produced cultivars with desirable agronomic traits.