LAUSR

Abstract The aim of this study was to compare the chemical composition of L. angustifolia volatiles from the field crop plant versus in vitro micropropagated plantlets. The rationale of this work was to develop in vitro culture methods for the fast and independent propagation of medicinal and aromatic plants in particular Lavender. Lavandula angustifolia Miller (Lamiaceae), also known as Lavender, is widely used in herbal medicine, cosmetic industry, and for culinary purposes. This species is highly valuated for its industrial purposes. It is a fact that there is a gap in the biotechnological production of industrially valuable crops such as Lavender. As a contemporary approach the plant tissue culture strategy of medicinal and aromatic plants by micropropagation serves as a useful technology to produce sufficient amounts of bioproducts e.g. plant material for multiple purposes. The plant samples were subjected both to hydro- and microdistillation for the isolation of volatiles. The resulting subsequent volatiles were simultaneously analysed both by GC–FID and GC–MS systems. The main compounds characterized from the hydrodistillation of micropropagated plantlets were linalool (22.1%), lavandulyl acetate (15.3%) and linalyl acetate (14.7%). The main compounds identified through microdistillation of this sample were linalool (14.6%), lavandulyl acetate (12.8%) and linalyl acetate (4.7%). On the other hand the main compounds of field crop plant from hydro- and microdistillation were T-cadinol (16.9–9.3%), borneol (8.7–14.0%) and 3-carene (8.7–8.6%), respectively. As a conclusion, the obtained results suggested that volatile composition of the micropropagated samples resembles to the composition of the officinal Lavender essential oils, which can be industrially exploited.