MENDELNET 2016 30 | Page THE VARIABILITY OF CARAWAY (CARUM CARVI L.) ESSENTIAL OILS RASTISLAV BOSKO 1 , LUCIE VAGNEROVA 1 , HELENA PLUHACKOVA 1 , JANA SOFROVA 2 , PROKOP SMIROUS 3 1 Department of Crop Science, Breeding and Plant Medicine 2 Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Mendel University in Brno Zemedelska 1, 613 00 Brno 3 Department of Plant Protection Agritec Plant Research Ltd. Zemedelska 16, 787 01 Sumperk CZECH REPUBLIC helena.pluhackova@mendelu.cz Abstract: The aim of this work was to highlight the great variability in the contained substances of caraway (Carum carvi L.) samples obtained from different types of cultivation and harvest years. The experiment included a total of 145 samples. At first, the isolation of essential oils by the means of steam distillation was performed, followed by the analysis of individual components using gas chromatography, where the main components carvone and limonene were determined. The presented results indicate that the coefficient of correlation between the essential oil content and the carvone content is relatively low statistically highly significant positive correlation (r = 0.32**) and for limonene there is even lower negative statistically highly significant correlation (r = -0.23**), suggesting a strong variability among individual samples regardless of their harvest year and origin. Key Words: steam distillation, carvone, limonene, correlation, achenes INTRODUCTION The essential oils and other secondary plant metabolites have been used from the dawn of time in a wide range of industries from culinary to phytotherapy. One such specie rich with the essential oil is caraway (Carum carvi L.) (Kwiatkowski et al. 2015). It is a crop plant from the family Apiaceae, which has long tradition of growing in the Czech Republic a nowadays is still a highly demanded cash crop. Caraway is considered to be one of the oldest spice grown in Europe (Aćimović et al. 2015). According to the Situation and perspective reports (2014), caraway was cultivated in the area of 2.173 hectares with an average yield of 0.92 t/ha. The proof of the great importance of caraway cultivation and production in our country is the fact that caraway was awarded the Protected Designation of Origin "CZECH CARAWAY" according to Council Regulation (EC) no. 510/2006 on the protection of geographical indications and designations of origin for agricultural products and foodstuffs. The conditions to be fulfilled for obtaining this mark are following: definition of the growing area in the Czech Republic, the use of seeds of registered varieties of a biennial form and quality of achenes specified by the content of the essential oil, which is appointed to a minimum of 2.8% (Přibylová 2014). Both biennial and perennial caraway can be found in fields in the Czech Republic. The amount and composition of the essential oil in the achenes is different according to the selected type of caraway. András et al. (2015) states that the essential oil content in the one-year varieties is about 2.5%, the essential oil content in biennial varieties can in exceptional cases even exceed 7%. However, the essential oil is not only contained in the achenes, it can be found in the whole plant, but only in a minimal amount (Aćimović et al. 2012). The caraway essential oil is characterised as a clear, colourless liquid with a pleasant aroma and spicy flavor. It consists of a broad spectrum of components (up to 30), wherein the main components and the carrier of odour are carvone (50–80%) and limonene (up to 50%). Carvone and limonene create about 95% of the total essential oil content and the remaining ingredients are present only in trace