Chemical composition of capillene chemotype of Artemisia dracunculus L. from North-West Himalaya, India

Artemisia dracunculus L. (Tarragon) is an important species of Asteraceae. Plants were collected at flowering stage from naturally growing population of Shansha (Himachal Pradesh), North-West Himalaya, India. Air dried shoots (room temperature 25–35 °C) were used to extract essential oil using Clevenger-type apparatus for 3 h and analyzed. Twenty-four compounds were identified using GC-FID and GC–MS analysis. Major constituent of essential oil was capillene (58.38%), whereas other constituents were Z-β-ocimene (8.63%), β-phellandrene (7.03%), terpinenolene (5.87%), camphene (4.16%), spathulenol (2.02%), β-pinene (1.02%), etc. Chemical composition of essential oil is described and compared with earlier studies. The population is categorized as chemotype of A. dracunculus. As capillene is major constituents, this chemotype may be useful for industrial exploitation as well as chemotaxonomic characterization.