Essential Oils and Chemical Diversity of Southeast European Populations of Salvia officinalis L.

The essential oils of 25 populations of Dalmatian sage (Salvia officinalis L.) from nine Balkan countries, including 17 indigenous populations (representing almost the entire native distribution area) and eight non‐indigenous (cultivated or naturalized) populations were analyzed. Their essential‐oil yield ranged from 0.25 to 3.48%. Within the total of 80 detected compounds, ten (β‐pinene, 1,8‐cineole, cis‐thujone, trans‐thujone, camphor, borneol, trans‐caryophyllene, α‐humulene, viridiflorol, and manool) represented 42.60 to 85.70% of the components in the analyzed essential oils. Strong positive correlations were observed between the contents of trans‐caryophyllene and α‐humulene, α‐humulene and viridiflorol, and viridiflorol and manool. Principal component analysis (PCA) on the basis of the contents of the ten main compounds showed that four principal components had an eigenvalue greater than 1 and explained 79.87% of the total variation. Performing cluster analysis (CA), the sage populations could be grouped into four distinct chemotypes (A–D). The essential oils of 14 out of the 25 populations of Dalmatian sage belonged to Chemotype A and were rich in cis‐thujone and camphor, with low contents of trans‐thujone. The correlation between the essential‐oil composition and geographic variables of the indigenous populations was not significant; hence, the similarities in the essential‐oil profile among populations could not be explained by the physical proximity of the populations. Additionally, the southeastern populations tended to have higher EO yields than the northwestern ones.