Proximate analysis, physicochemical properties and chemical constituent’s characterization of Rosemarinus officinalis oil

Abstract

Rosmarinus officinalis L. is a herb belonging to the family Lamiaceae that originates from the Mediterranean region, a common medicinal and aromatic plant, grown in many parts of the world including Ethiopia.The dried leaves of Rosmarinus officinalis cultivated in Ankober woreda, Ethiopia were subjected to hydro distillation for 3 h using a Clevenger-type apparatus.The percent yield (1.23 %), physico-chemical properties such as refractive index (1.463),relative density (0.899), optical rotation (-5o), solubility, colour and odour were determined.Proximate analysis of Rosmarinus officinalis leaves such as total ash, water soluble ash, acid insoluble ash, moisture content, pH, were found to be (7.6),(3.6), (1.7), (10.4) and (5.9) respectively.The essential oil of Rosmarinus officinalis were analysed using GC-MS and the main components of the Rosmarinus officinalis oils are -pinene (50.8 %), 1, 8-cineole (24.4 %), camphene (5.2 %), camphor (3.8 %), caryophyllene (2.9 %) and -pinene (2.1 %).