Essential oil composition of Capsella bursa-pastoris (L.) Medik herba

INTRODUCTION: Capsella Medik. genus belongs to Brassicaceae family and is represented by 4 species in Turkey. Among them,
C. bursa-pastoris (L.) Medik. is a cosmopolite species and grows naturally throughout Turkey There are a few studies on the
essential oil composition of different parts of the plant and as far as we are concerned, essential oil composition of the plant
growing in Turkey has not been studied previously. Thus, in this study we aimed to isolate and analyze the essential oil
composition of the aerial parts of C. bursa-pastoris growing naturally in Ankara, Turkey.
METHODS: Plant material was collected from Ankara University Tandoğan Campus in and essential oil of the aerial parts was
obtained by hydrodistillation using a Clevenger type apparatus for 3h and analyzed both by GC-FID and GC-MS, simultaneously.
RESULTS: Essential oil yield was determined to be 0.2% and 90.2% of the essential oil composition was identified, corresponding
to 21 components. Major components of the oil were determined to be nonacosane (19.6%) phytol (19.3%), pentacosane (13.5%),
heptacosane (9.9%), hexadecanoic acid (9.9%).
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Phytol was found to be the main component of the essential oil of the leaves and aerial parts
(16.34% and 13.14, respectively) in a literature study consistent with the results of our study. Essential oil content of other parts of
the species, along with species collected from different localities would be an important contribution the species and the genus and
should be performed in the future.