Green and Sustainable Chemistry, 2012, 2, 59-61 doi:10.4236/gsc.2012.22010 Published Online May 2012 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/gsc) 59 Composition of the Volatile Components Extracted from the Roots of Scorzonera undulata ssp deliciosa (Guiss) Maire: From Algeria Brahim Harkati 1 , Salah Akkal 1* , Marie Genevieve Dijoux Franca 2 1 Laboratoire de Phytochimie et Analyses Physicochimiques et Biologiques, Département de Chimie, Faculté de Sciences Exactes, Université Mentouri Constantine, Constantine, Algérie 2 Département de Botanique et Pharmacognosie, Faculté de Pharmacie—Ecologie Microbienne, CESN, ISPB, Lyon, France Email: * salah4dz@yahoo.fr Received February 8, 2012; revised February 20, 2012; accepted March 11, 2012 ABSTRACT The chemical composition of the volatile components of the dried roots of Scorzonera undulata ssp deliciosa collected from Algeria was determined by GC and GC/MS. The obtained results showed that the extracted oil contained nine fatty acids. The major compounds were hexadecanoic acid (42.2%), n-tetradecanoic acid (16.1%), 9-octadecenoic acid (7.7%) and 9-hexadecenoic acid (4.5%). Keywords: Asteraceae; Scorzonera undulata ssp deliciosa; Essential Oil; Fatty Acids; GC-MS 1. Introduction The Scorsonera is a genus belonging to the Asteraceae sunflower family which it grows mainly in dry areas of Europe and Asia. It consists of about 90 species distrib- uted over Europe, Asia and Africa. In Algeria, it is rep- resented by 8 species: S. caespitosa Pomel, S. coronopi- folia Desf., S. fasciata Pomel, S. laciniata L., S. pyg- maeae S., S. undulata Vahl, ssp. Alexandrina (Boiss.) M. and ssp. deliciosa (Guss.) Maire [1]. Some species of Scorsonera were used as cooking vegetables and in tradi- tional medicine both in Europe and Asia. In Algeria, is Scorzonera undulata ssp deliciosa used in traditional medicine mainly against snake bites [2]. Previous phytochemical investigation on Scorsonera species showed that the main constituents of the aerial parts of S. undulata oil from Tunisia were the aliphatic esters and aliphatic hydrocarbons [3]. The main compo- nents of S. hispanica from Netherlands were aliphatics acid and aliphatic hydrocarbons [4], while aliphatic hy- drocarbons and alcohols were the main constituents of S. mongolica oil from China [5]. The aim of this work was to study the chemical com- position of the volatile components of the dried roots of Scorzonera undulata ssp deliciosa (Guiss) growing in Algeria. 2. Material and Methods 2.1. Plant Material The roots of S. undulata were collected in El-aouinet, (Eastern Algeria), during April 2004 and identified by Dr. H. Laouer (Department of Biology, University Ferhat Abbas, Setif, Algeria). The material was air-dried in- doors prior to extraction. 2.2. Essential Oil Extraction Extraction of the volatile compounds of the dried roots (80 g) of S. undulata was achieved by hydrodistillation during 3 h using a Clevenger-type apparatus, according of the European Pharmacopoeia. 2.3. Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry The obtained extract was subjected to GS-MS analysis on an Agilent system consisting of a 6890A gas chro- matograph, a 5973 mass selective detector, and an Agilent Technologies data system. The CG column was an HP- 5ms fused silica capillary with a (5% phenyl)-methyl- polysiloxane stationary phase, (30 m × 0.25 mm i.d, film thickness 0.25 μm). Helium was used as carrier gas with a column head pressure of 9.95 psi and rate of 1.0 ml/min. The GC oven temperature was programmed linearly from 90˚C initial temperatures, held for 5 min increased at 5˚C/min to 300˚C. The mass spectrometric operating * Corresponding author. Copyright © 2012 SciRes. GSC