Essential oil composition is related to the natural habitats: Coridothymus capitatus and Satureja thymbra in NATURA 2000 sites of Crete

The study of essential oils obtained from Coridothymus capitatus and Satureja thymbra collected from different natural habitat types of 11 NATURA 2000 sites scattered all over Crete has shown that they are characterized either by a high amount of carvacrol (up to 75.7%) or thymol (up to 65.6%) or by a more or less equal amount of the two phenols. The results of a discriminant analysis with predefined groups the natural habitat types wherefrom the plants were collected have shown that the oils of both species collected from the dry dwarf-shrub formations of the lowland have a high carvacrol content whereas those collected from the more mesic timber or highland formations have a high thymol content. Furthermore, the results of this study introduce the use of natural habitat unit as a tool for the assessment of essential oil variation.