Chemical composition of essential oils from needles of Pinus pinaster from Italy and from Tunisia

The chemical composition of the essential oil obtained from the needles of Pinus pinaster by hydrodistillation was analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Fifty components were detected, of which 41 were identified for a total percentage of about 98 %. The main components of the essential oil of needles from Tunisia were abietadiene (25.4 %), 13-epi-manoyl oxide (16.6 %), abietatriene (10.2 %), β-caryophyllene (11.1 %), 13(16), 14-labdien-8-ol (5.9 %) and α-pinene (5.3 %) whereas the oil from Italy was predominantly composed of limonene (36.7 %), abienol (13.4 %), manoyl oxide (6.5 %) and β-caryophyllene (5.8 %).