Comprehensive phenological description of essential-oil chemotypes of Salvia lavandulifolia Vahl grown under the same environmental conditions.

A comprehensive description of diverse essential-oil chemical profiles was conducted with twelve individual plants of Salvia lavandulifolia Vahl (Spanish sage) gathered from wild populations and grown under identical culture conditions. Whereas the chemical polymorphism within species of aromatic plants is well known, both the statistical significance of the differences in the chemical composition and the setting of chemical profiles have been scarcely studied. Remarkably different essential-oil chemical profiles were described for the wild-growing plants, which remained different during the three years of cultivation, even when acute situations of water stress occurred. Different patterns of representative compounds throughout the phenological cycle of the species were also reported, with 1,8-cineole being the main oil compound described (contents of up to 75.2%). The Mahalanobis distance was used as a separation parameter, to assign a significance level to a single-compound chemotype. The phytochemical heterogeneity of some wild populations of Spanish sage was proved. Furthermore, some concrete genotypes presented high percentages of the following volatile compounds: limonene, 1,8-cineole, trans-caryophyllene, spathulenol, and viridiflorol.