Geographical patterns of in vivo spontaneously emitted volatile organic compounds in Salvia species

Salvia is the largest genus in the Lamiaceae family: such a wide number of species is due to the almost ubiquitous distribution of this genus, but also to the cultivars selection carried out by botanists and private collectors during centuries. It shows a wide variety of characteristics in the specimens, both in the external appearance and the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) profiles. We analysed the spontaneous volatile emission profiles of living samples of leaves taken from 30 different species of Salvia using the Head Space - Solid Phase Micro Extraction technique coupled with Gas Chromatography - Mass Spectrometry analysis. The aim was to evaluate the existence of possible geographical patterns in the volatile composition of the spontaneous emission profiles. The selected samples belong to three geographical areas: Central and South America, Mediterranean Europe and Middle East, and South Africa. The major identified compounds (in over 70% of the samples) are α-pinene, limonene, α- β- and copaene, β-caryophyllene, α-humulene, germacrene D and n-heptadecane. The Multivariate Statistical Analyses (HCA and PCA) show a sharp tendency of the samples to gather in groups with a behavior that significantly matches the geographical origin of the analysed specimens.