ESSENTIAL OIL COMPOSITION OF ENDEMIC Hypericum ekerii FROM TURKEY AND CHEMOTAXONOMIC COMPARISONS

In our study, chemotaxonomic comparisons and essential oil composition of Hypericum ekeriNtice&Aytac (Hypericaceae) endemic to Turkey was studied for the first time. The composition of the essential oils of Hypericum ekerii was investigated and 45compounds were determined in total. GC and GC-MS analysis result showed a-pinene 18.73%, limonene 7.28%, caryophyllene oxide 6.71% and b-caryophyllene 6.47% as the majorcomponents. Based on the major chemical components, clusterinvestigated was applied for all the Hypericum species on Drosanthesection studied. With H. ekerii and all Drosanthesection species were grouped based on the presence of a specific compound and a dendrogram was created, and this section grouped the species into clusters. The chemical distribution of essential oil compounds in the genus pattern were discussed in means of natural products, major components and chemotaxonomy.