Study on volatile compounds of Artemisia caerulescens from Croatia

Halophytes are plant species that are adapted to areas with high salinity and can survive in salty habitats such as the sea, seashore, salt marshes, lakes, etc. In Croatia, halophytes grow not only by the sea, but also on the coast in the spray zone and in some places further away from the sea, where the salinity is particularly high due to strong winds and the soil is therefore salty. Plants that live in these areas have special adaptation mechanisms. These include a complex network of biochemical mechanisms and a range of bioactive molecules. In the Mediterranean region, rural communities use halophytes both as food and as a source of health benefits. The aim of this study was to determine the volatile compounds of Artemisia caerulescens from the Pantan Reserve, Croatia. The essential oil was isolated from air-dried above-ground plant material by hydrodistillation. The aqueous layer that remains after isolation of the essential oil is the hydrolate. The chemical composition of the volatile compounds was determined by the coupled technique of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) using the HP-5MS column. Headspace solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) was used to isolate the volatile components from the hydrolate. The main components of the essential oil and hydrolate were camphor (41.6 and 52.1%, respectively) and α-thujone (34.2 and 26.8%, respectively). Several manuscripts on the chemical composition of the essential oil of this plant have been published so far, but this is the first manuscript on the chemical composition of the hydrolate. Publication History Article published online: 05 March 2026 © 2026. Thieme. All rights reserved. Georg Thieme Verlag KG Oswald-Hesse-Straße 50, 70469 Stuttgart, Germany