Catnip Analysis

GC/MS analysis was detected the 9 compounds in catnip essential oil, which included sabinene, β-Pinene, Z-β-ocimene, E-β-ocimene, trans-caryophyllene, caryophyllene oxide and three isomers of iridoid nepetalactone. These compounds were composed 99.3 % of the essential oil components. The nepetalactone isomers were included (4a-α,7-α,7a-α)-nepetalactone (6.25 – 16.83 %), (4a-α,7-α,7a-β)-nepetalactone (85.41 - 71.4 %) and (4a-α,7-β,7a-α)-nepetalactone (4.96 - 7.24 %). These isomers were the major constituents of essential oil in fresh and dried catnip and the amount of (4a-α, 7-α, 7a-β) -nepetalactone was predominated.
Results showed drying methods had a significant (p < 0.01) effect on the essential oil content and its components (Table 1). Sun drying, shade drying, drying with 100-watt power of microwave radiation and the shade drying followed 3 hours the sun drying were reduced essential oil content when compared with fresh plant of catnip. In contrast the amount of essential oil was

The shade drying had the most effect on the increment of Z-β-ocimene content (0.2 %). Also in comparison with fresh catnip, the amount of Z-β-ocimene has increased up to 50 percentage under the oven drying with temperature of 35 ° C, but its content was reduced with temperature increment. E-β-ocimene content under sun and shade drying methods were increased up to 37 % and 1.7 times respectively, when compared with fresh catnip. Also drying by the oven at temperature of 35 and 45 ° C were enhanced the amount of E-β-ocimene up to 54 and 23 percent, respectively. However, increasing the oven temperature to 55 ° C was reduced its content to 42 % compared to fresh catnip. The highest content of E-β-ocimene were obtained in the shade drying (63 %), while its minimum was observed in the 100-watt microwave radiation and shade drying after the sun drying (0.07 %) (Table