INTRODUCTION Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) is a spice and medicinal herb widely used around the world. It is an important medicinal and aromatic plant, which belongs to the Lamiaceae family and has been cultivated for a long time. Anthropologists and archaeologists have found evidence that rosemary herbs were used as medicinal, culinary and cosmetic virtues in the ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, China and India 1 . Rosemary is a perspective plant culture in the world; it is in the middle of interest of plant breeders 2-4 . Rosemary is cultivated for the valuable oil, which can be extracted from the harvested plants when flowers are in buds 1 . Rosemary leaves are a very common spice and its oil is used in fragrance flavour industry aroma- therapy 5 , antioxidant activity 6,7 , antimiccrobial and antitumour properties 8,9 . It is used for flavouring food, in cosmetic and in traditional medicine for choretics, hepatoprotective and antimorigenic activity 10 . The essential oil enhances the blood-circulation of the limbs, has antirheumatic effect and relieves the neuralgic pains. Besides the therapeutical application, the essential oil is widely applied in the cosmetic industry producing various Cologne waters, bathing essences, hair lotions and shampoons. The leaf of rosemary is an indispensable spice of the French, Italian and Spanish cuisine 1 . The rosemary essential oil composition has been investigated and reported in literature 11 . The studies include countries mainly from the Mediterranean region, Balkans, South-Eastern regions 12 . Chalchat et al. 2 reported comparison Spain, Morocco and France Rosemary oils composition. Oils Chemical Composition of the Essential Oil of Rosemary ( Rosmarinus officinalis L.) of Tunisian Origin K. HCINI 1,* , J.A. SOTOMAYOR 2 , M.J. JORDAN 2 and S. BOUZID 1 1 Département des Sciences Biologiques, Campus Universitaire, Faculté des Sciences de Tunis, 2092 El-Manar II, Tunis, Tunisia 2 Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Desarrollo Rural, Laboratory of Aromatic and Medicinal Plants, Instituto Murciano de Investigacióny Desarrollo Agrario y Alimentario (IMIDA), C/Mayor, s/n La Alberca, 30150 Murcia, Spain *Corresponding author: Tel: +216 94 491 686, E-mail: hcinikheiria@yahoo.fr (Received: 24 January 2012; Accepted: 15 November 2012) AJC-12411 The hydrodistilled essential oils of three samples of aerial parts of Rosmarinus officinals L. growing in Tunisia were analyzed by GC-MS. Capillary GC-MS analysis of the essential oils permitted the detection of 38 components. Among them, four were tentatively identified. The oils were found to be rich in 1,8-cineol (33.08-37.75 %), camphor (13.55-18.13 %), α-pinene (8.58-9.32 %), α-terpineol (6.79- 8.17 %), camphene (5.07-5.58 %), borneol (4.08-5.48 %), limonene (3.19-3.04 %) and p-cymene (2.42-3.11 %). Key Words: Rosmarinus officinals L, Essential oil, Chemical composition, GC-MS. of the other origins have also been studied 13, 14 . At present, demand for R. officinalis is increasing for its use in traditional medicine, pharmaceutical industries and agribusiness 13 . How- ever, most of the material used comes from natural Rosemary populations growing in sites characterized by low rainfall (<300 mm/year), repeated drought, low soil quality and overgrazing 15 . These factors compounded with an increasing harvest have led to continuous degradation of populations 16 . The aim of the present work is to evaluate the chemical composition of rosemary essential oil originated from Tunisia. EXPERIMENTAL Aerial parts plants of Rosmarinus officinalis L. were randomly collected from three geographic origins (Beja, Sidi Bouzid and Gabes) in Tunisia. Fresh aerial parts of plants were dried in a forced-air drier at 35 ºC for 48 h, until it reached a constant weight. Stem and leaves of Rosmarinus officinalis L were collected at the flowering stage from different localities and identified by Dr. Sotomayor, botanist at the IMIDA Insti- tution. Voucher specimens of the species are deposited at the Herbarium of the Laboratory of vegetable Biotechnology and morphogenesis at the faculty of sciences of Tunis under the numbers ROB 2008-117, ROSB 2008-118 and ROG 2008- 119), respectively, for the (Beja, Sidi Bouzid and Gabes) sites. Essential oil extraction: Fresh aerial parts of plants were dried in a forced-air drier at 35 ºC for 48 h, until it reached a constant weight. Aerial parts of individual plants were distilled for 3 h using a Clevenger-type system. The oil volume was measured directly in the extraction buret. Samples were dried Asian Journal of Chemistry; Vol. 25, No. 5 (2013), 2601-2603 http://dx.doi.org/10.14233/ajchem.2013.13506