Ricerc@Sapienza

A comprehensive study on essential oils (EOs) extracted from different Calamintha nepeta
(L.) Savi subsp. glandulosa (Req.) Ball (CG) samples from Tarquinia (Italy) is reported. In this study,
the 24-hour steam distillation procedure for EO preparation, in terms of different harvesting and
extraction times, was applied. The GC/MS analysis showed that CG essential oils from Tarquinia
(TEOCG) belong to pulegone-rich chemotype. The analysis of 44 samples revealed that along

Steam distillation is known to be the most prevalent method of essential oil extraction. Despite many studies on extraction methods, there is no report about the impact of distillation process duration on the yield and oil quality. A new 24-h steam distillation process for extraction of plant essential oils is presented. For improving the total yield, prolonged and continued isolation was used. A selection of plant species from Lamiaceae and Apiaceae families was subjected to direct steam distillation and essential oils were collected at different times (1, 2, 3, 6, 12 and 24 h).

Recent molecular and morphological data derived from members of the pollen-beetle subfamily Meligethinae suggest the need to separate
the genus Sagittogethes Audisio & Cline, 2009, including species mostly distributed in Western Palaearctic areas, into two distinct
(although related) genera, Sagittogethes and Teucriogethes gen. n. This new genus, comprising the Western European Meligethes obscurus
Erichson, 1845 as its type species, includes less than ten species distributed between the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa westward,

Five new species of the genus Lamiogethes Audisio & Cline are described from western, central and southern China: L.
falcatus sp. n. (Sichuan), L. hastipenis sp. n. (Hubei), L. sagittalis sp. n. (Shaanxi), L. unditibiis sp. n. (Chongqing), and
L. limaelytralis sp. n. (Sichuan). The first four new species appear to be morphologically related to Lamiogethes ancestor
(Kirejtshuk, 1980) (comb. n.) from Central China, and allied taxa. Lamiogethes limaelytralis sp. n. appears to be more

In this work, an interesting potential application of phytochemistry is reported. In particular, we employed the
Sporne diagrams to provide information about the evolution of some different Lamiaceae species in relation to
their content in secondary metabolites. In more details, fifteen species belonging to six different genera were
studied i.e. Ajuga L., Galeopsis L., Melittis L., Sideritis L., Stachys L. and Teucrium L. The selected secondary
metabolites were iridoids because of their wide occurrence and distribution within all the family, thus providing

Lamiaceae is a family of plants included in the angiosperms group and comprising 12 subfamilies, 16 tribes, 9 sub-tribes, 236 genera and more than 7000 species. Plants belonging to this family are quite known all around the world for their traditional uses in both ethnobotany and cookery.

In this review, the species from the genus Eremostachys Bunge are described and explored from different standpoints. In particular, the main attention is focused on phytochemistry also with reference to the biogenesis of the most important class of chemotaxonomic marker, the iridoids, and their co-occurrence with volatile terpene components of essential oils which own the same biogenetic precursors. The ethnopharmacological implications of the plants belonging to this genus are also reported in detail.