Comparison of composition of volatile compounds in ten Salvia species isolated by different methods

The composition of volatile compounds isolated from ten Salvia spp., namely S. amplexicaulis , S. austriaca , S. forsskaolei , S. glutinosa , S. nemorosa , S. officinalis , S. pratensis , S. sclarea , S. dumetorum and S. verticillata , by simultaneous distillation/extraction in a Likens‐Nickerson apparatus (L‐N) and supercritical fluid extraction with carbon dioxide (SFE‐CO 2 ) is reported. S. officinalis and S. sclarea are the most thoroughly studied Salvia spp., whereas other selected in this study Salvia spp. remain underinvestigated; to the best of our knowledge, there are no available publications on the composition of volatiles in S. forsskaolei and S. dumetorum . It was demonstrated that S. officinalis accumulates the highest amount of volatiles compounds, followed by S. sclarea ; while other studied species are poor sources of volatiles. Regarding extraction method, the amount of volatiles isolated from 1 kg of dried plant material by SFE‐CO 2 was 1.4–5.9 times lower comparing to L‐N method, most likely due to the losses of volatiles with exhausting from the system CO 2 after depressurizing extraction equipment. Taking into account these findings, further studies should be focused on improving the method of collection of volatiles in SFE‐CO 2 process and on the determination of other, non‐volatile valuable compounds, which may be present in the lipophilic CO 2 extracts of under‐investigated Salvia spp.