The main citral-geraniol and carvacrol chemotypes of the essential oil of thymus pulegioides L. growing wild in vilnius district (Lithuania).

Thymus pulegioides L. with lemon and carvacrol odor form the major part of plants growing wild in all 10 investigated localities during 1995-1997. The main components of the citral-geraniol chemotype of lemon-scented essential oil are the following (%): geraniol (14.9-30. 8), geranial (trans-citral, 9.7-19.7), beta-caryophylene (6.0-11.4), nerol (4.1-11.8), and neral (cis-citral, 0.1-9.5). The essential oil of carvacrol chemotypes contain more compounds that are characteristic of the thyme genus (%): carvacrol (16.0-22.2), beta-bisabolene (11.1-20.2), beta-caryophyllene (11.1-19.1), gamma-terpinene (5.8-16.2), p-cimene (5.5-10.4), thymol (3.3-9.8), and carvacrol methyl ether (5.6-8.6). The correlation between the odor and composition of the essential oil will help the users of wild thyme to choose the necessary chemotype for their purposes.