Chemical Variability of Two Essential Oils of Tunisian Rue: Ruta montana and Ruta chalepensis

The genus Ruta includes some popular aromatic species of the flora of Tunisia, with important medicinal properties. They have been traditionally been used in the folk as herbal remedy medicine for the treatment of a variety of disorders. Information about the essential oil compositions of the Tunisian medicinal plant Ruta montana has not been reported. For this reason the objective of this study was to determine and compare the chemical composition of the essential oils of dried leaves and stems of the two principal Tunisian Ruta species: Ruta montana and Ruta chalepensis. Chemical analyses were performed by GC-MS assays. Essential oil yields was 0.66 %, it's the same for all organs. For the chemical composition, independent of species and organs, the major compound for the 4 essential oil was the 2-undecanone. 1-nonene and 2-nonanone were the second major component in R. montana and R. chalepensis essntial oils.