ESSENTIAL OIL PHYSICOCHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF THE Thymus fontanesii COLLECTED FROM TIARET A SEMI-ARID REGION OF ALGERIA

The aim of this work was to determine the exact composition of the essential oil extracted from Thymus fontanesii collected from Tiaret at the western region of Algeria by gas chromatography method. The fresh aerial parts of T. fontanesii were collected at the flowering stage on May 2017 from Tiaret, at the western region of Algeria, characterised by a semi-arid climate. The essential oil extracted was dried with anhydrous sodium sulfate and kept at a cool temperature of +4°C in glass bottles away from light. The essential oil from leaves of Thymus fontanesii was analysed by gas chromatography (GC-FID) and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC/MS) realized by Pyrenessences Analysis, France. The oil was obtained from the aerial parts of T. fontanesii with an average yield of 2,256±0,094%. The chromatographic analyses identified ninety-one (91) compounds which represents approximately 99,92% of the total detected oil components mainly represented by carvacrol with 62,25% being by far the main component the other appreciable constituents identified were γ-terpinene with 12,62%, β-cymene with 7,43%, linalool with 4,26%, β-myrcene with 1,29% and α-terpinene with 1,31%. and thymol represented only 1,76% of the composition.