Available online at www.scholarsresearchlibrary.com Scholars research library Archives of Applied Science Research, 2011, 3 (5):381-383 (http://scholarsresearchlibrary.com/archive.html) ISSN 0975-508X CODEN (USA) AASRC9 381 Scholars research library Analysis and Comparison of Chemical Composition of Essential Oils from Stachys byzantina C.Koch. Wet and Dried Farshid Salimi * , Ali Shafaghat, Hajar Sahebalzamani and Hassan Habibzadeh Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Ardabil Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ardabil, Iran ______________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT Hydrodistillation of dried and wet of Stachys byzantina C.Koch. (Lamiaceae) yielded 0.1% and 0.08 % (v/w) essential oils, respectively. GC-MS analysis allowed identification of 37 components, which made up 93.2% of the total oil from the dried sample, and 20 compounds (96.1%) were identified in the wet aerial part of plant. Keywords: Stachys byzantina, Lamiaceae, essential oil, p- cymene, α- copaene, β- cubebene. ______________________________________________________________________________ INTRODUCTION The genus Stachys which belongs to the Lamiaceae family, is found in mild regions of the Mediterranean and in southwest Asia. This genus consists of 250 species widespread throughout the word. Among the 34 species present in Iran, 13 species are endemic [1]. The compositions of the oils of some Stachys species such as, S. acerosa [2], S. aegyptiaca [3], S. athorekalyx [4] and S. recta [5] have been reported. We decided to study the constituents of the essential oil from wet and dried plant of Stachys byzantina of the Ardabil area, northwest Iran. Stachys species also have several folkloric uses, e.g. the leaf of S. officinalis L. Trev. is used as a carminative and to relieve headaches [6]. S. botenica L. is used as a tonic, astringent and to relieve headaches, while S. palustris L. is used as an antiseptic, to relieve gout and to stop hemorrhage. S. byzantina is used as an ulcer healer and antiseptic too. In this work, plant material was collected on July, 2006 in Ardabil-Astara road Ardabil province, at an altitude of 2200 m in Iran. A voucher specimen has been deposited at the Herbarium of the Agriculture Research Centre Ardabil, Iran. MATERIALS AND METHODS Plant materials were divided to two parts. Part one was air-dried in the shade and the other part was directly used to isolation of their oils. Amount 150 g of each other of aerial part of dried and fresh plant was subjected to 4h of hydrodistillation in a Clevenger-type apparatus. The resulting oil (yield: 0.1% aerial dried part and 0.08 from wet part V/W) were dried over anhydrous sodium