229
Traditional & Integrative Medicine 2021, Vol. 6, No. 3
http://jtim.tums.ac.ir
Abstract
Peganum harmala is a plant that belongs to the family Zygophyllaceae. In traditional medicine, this plant has
therapeutic effects such as repelling intestinal worms, increasing sexual potency, increasing milk secretion,
anti-rheumatism, regularizing, anti-parasitic, hypnotic, diaphoretic, anti-cancer and analgesic. The aim
of this study was to identify the chemical composition of P. harmala seed essential oil. P. harmala seed
essential oil was extracted by Head Space-SPME [HS-SPME] method and its chemical compounds were
identifed by GC-MS method. Totally, 41 chemical compounds were identifed in P. harmala seed essential
oil. According to the results, the most compounds of P. harmala L. seed essential oil includes 2,3-dimethyl
benzofuran (28.32%), cis-linalool oxide (7.46%), [2E]- decenal (6.57%), 4aα,7β,7aα-nepetalactone (6.49%),
3-oxo-p-menth-1-en-7-al (6.36%) and trans- β- terpineol (5.86%), respectively.
Keywords: Medicinal plant; Essential oil; Peganum harmala L.; 2,3-Dimethyl benzofuran; Head-
space solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME); Gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS)
TRADITIONAL AND INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE
Trad Integr Med, Volume 6, Issue 3, Summer 2021
Original Research
Reza Asadzadeh
1
, Naser Abbasi
2
, Mahmoud Bahmani
2
*
Traditional & Integrative Medicine
1
Department of Nephrology, School of Medicine, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran
2
Biotechnology and Medicinal Plants Research Center, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran
Received: 8 Apr 2021 Revised: 12 Jun 2021 Accepted: 13 Jun 2021
*Corresponding Author: Mahmoud Bahmani
Biotechnology and Medicinal Plants Research Center, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran
Email: mahmood.bahmani@gmail.com
Extraction and Identifcation of Chemical Compounds of Peganum
harmala L. Seed Essential Oil by HS-SPME and GC-MS Methods
Citation: Asadzadeh R, Abbasi N, Bahmani M. Extraction and Identifcation of Chemical Compounds of Peganum harmala L.
Seed Essential Oil by HS-SPME and GC-MS Methods. Trad Integr Med 2021; 6(3): 229-235.
Copyright © 2021 Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Published by Tehran University of Medical Sciences.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.
org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Noncommercial uses of the work are permitted, provided the original work is properly cited.
Introduction
Esfand or Harmel medicinal plant with the
scientifc name of Peganum harmala L., is a
plant that grows in the Mediterranean regions
of North Africa, Asia, Turkey, Syria, Iran, In-
dia and Spain. P. harmala is stable and hair-
less and belongs to the family Zygophylla-
ceae [1]. Morphologically, P. harmala L. as
bright green leaves full of water with narrow,
long and irregular divisions. P. harmala stem
is zigzag, woody and contains several branch-
es. Also, its fruit is in the form of a capsule
of three houses and in the shape of a sphere.
Each capsule house contains a large number
of seeds. Its seeds are angular, dark brown,
with a distinct odor [1]. P. harmala is wide-