Research Article
Fériale Benay
Abstract
The essential oil of Thymus numidicus Poiret an endemic Algerian species was obtained by steam distillation and identified by GC and GC-MS. 48 components were determined. The oxygenated terpenoidic components constituted the most important fraction (71.7% ) while the non oxygenated fraction represented 26.2%. The major components were thymol ( 54.1%) followed by p-cymene (15,3%), linalool (5.4%) , carvacrol (3.8%), thymoquinone (3.7%) , a - pinene (2%), thymol methylether ( 1.7%) and b-caryophyllene (1.8%). Our result differ slightly from the few previous studies on this species and showed a relatively high proportion of p-cymene 15.3%) , a-pinene ( 2%) and hydrocarbonated sesquiterpenic fraction (4.6%) in comparison with the other samples studied previously