Essential oil and chemical composition of wild and cultivated fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.): A comparative study.

• Domestication did not improve the yield of essential oils extracted from the seeds. • Essential oil from wild fennel exhibited a high phenolic and antioxidant activity. • Essential oil from cultivated fennel exhibited a high antioxidant activity compared to that of wild fennel. • Essential oil from cultivated fennel contained a high amount of estragole while that of wild fennel showed a high quantity of anethole. Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill) figures among medicinal and aromatic herbal species that grow wild in oasis environments. The goal of the current work is to study for the first time the impact of domestication on the yield, phytochemical profile and antiradical activity of essential oils drawn from wild and domesticated fennel seeds in Morocco. The main findings revealed that wild fennel had the highest seed yield (10.98±0.4 g/plant) compared to the cultivated plant (9.14±0.5 g/plant) and the yield of essential oils was not enhanced by domestication. Actually, wild fennel recorded the highest yield of essential oil (3.67 ± 0.13%), whereas cultivated fennel exhibited the lowest yield (2.13 ± 0.07%). Similarly, the wild fennel essential oil showed the highest phenolic content (222.24 µg/mL) and antioxidant power based on β-Carotene bleaching assay (IC 50 = 0.694 mg/mL) and TBARS assay (IC 50 = 1.193 mg/mL). The chromatography analysis showed that that estragole, anethole, and fenchone were the main compounds in both wild and cultivated fennel. However, cultivated fennel contained a high amount of estragole and a lower amount of anethole than that of wild fennel. Concerning the other compounds, the chemical profile was almost similar with minor quantitative variation. Regarding the antibacterial activity, cultivated fennel seeds essential oil recorded the strongest effect compared to that of the wild plant which might be related to the main compounds found in this essential oil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]