Phenolic acid contents, essential oil compositions and antioxidant activities of two varieties of Salvia euphratica from Turkey.

This study was designed to evaluate the in vitro antioxidant activities of n-hexane (Hex), dichloromethane (DCM), methanol (MeOH) and essential oils (EO) extracts obtained from Salvia euphratica var. euphratica and Salvia euphratica var. leiocalycina and to determine their essential oil and phenolic acid compositions. The samples were screened for their antioxidant activity by using DPPH and β-carotene/linoleic acid assays. Methanol extracts of both varieties exhibited strong antioxidant activities. Our results showed that rosmarinic acid was dominant phenolic acid of MeOH extracts (39.4 and 55.8 µg mg⁻¹, respectively). The chemical compositions of essential oils of two varieties were analysed and their main components were determined as eucalyptol (18.4%) and trans-pinocarvyl acetate (24.9%), respectively. It can be said that these varieties could be used as natural antioxidant.