Abstract

Here, we aimed at comparing Origanum compactumessential oil (OCEO) isolated using microwave assisted extraction (MW) and Clevenger hydrodistillation (HD). To this end, dried flowering tops from O. compactum were subjected OCEOs isolated separately using MW and HD and then analyzed using GC-MS. MW showed its superiority in terms of OCEO yield (7.41%), and total compounds (95.57%). In both techniques, thymol and carvacrol were the major compounds accounting for 78.81±0.22 and 14.84±0.39%, respectively, in the case of MW against 75.07±0.99 and 13.03±0.30% for HD. The correlations matrix showed strong positive correlations among OCEO yield and major compounds (thymol and carvacrol). Linear regression models were established for thymol and carvacrol against OCEO yield as well as thymol against carvacrol. In all cases, all models performed better since R2 exceeded 75%. Based on these outcomes, OCEO was a thymol chemotype with important amounts of nutrients; MW could be suggested as a green efficient method over HD for OCEO isolation. Our regression models will allow the prediction of thymol and carvacrol based on OCEO yield as well as thymol from carvacrol content.