Essential oil composition of Pterospartum tridentatum grown in Portugal

The essential oils, isolated by hydrodistillation and distillation-extraction, from the aerial parts of different populations of Pterospartum tridentatum collected during the flowering phase, at different locations in Portugal, were analysed by GC and GC–MS. All the P. tridentatum populations studied afforded a yellowish oil in a yield <0.05% (v/w). cis-Theaspirane (2–14%), trans-theaspirane (2–17%) and octen-3-ol (2–37%) were, in variable amounts, the dominant components of the oils. Cluster analysis of the essential oil compositions from the nine populations studied, confirmed a major chemical variability.