Plant selection and virological tests: Before effecting the collection procedure, heathy and infected plants of E. purpurea grown in the open field at the Herb Garden of Casola Valsenio were selected and labelled by visual inspection of their aerial parts. The infection by CMV was associated with symptoms on both leaves and flowers. The most characteristic symptoms are yellow mosaic, ring and line-patterns on crinkled and deformed leaves that drop prematurely. The flowers, which may be smaller than normal, show color breaking with white or pale stripes on red petals. Shortening of the internodes is also very common, giving the plant a bushy appearance known as stunting. In Italian environmental conditions, these symptoms are best visible in the summer. On the other hand, plants appeared symptom-free were collected as healthy material. Plant collection: About 3-4 Kg fresh aerial part materials (70% stems, 10% leaves and 20% flowers) of healthy E. purpurea plants were collected in June 2000 at almost the end of flowering. An equivalent quantity of CMV-infected plants (evaluated by DAS-ELISA) was also collected; the percentage of leaves in the infected infected was about 6.0% as due to CMV presence that caused the premature leaf drop.

The oil from healthy material was rich in germacrene D (57.8%) and was more abundant. The infected materials afforded a lower oil content and significant quantitative variations in the oil composition. In particular, the observed percentage of germacrene D (52.6%) was reduced as were other sesquiterpene hydrocarbons. These variations, tested to be significant for all the compound-class fractions and individual major components, were ascribed to the cucumber mosaic cucumovirus (CMV) infection, the only fixed-effect variable that might affect the oil composition.

Eucalyptus urophylla and E. grandis were collected in January (summer) and August (winter) 2006 at the mature vegetative state from Goiania city Brazil, and identified by one of the authors (E.P.F.). Leaves from 5-11 randomized individual plants of the same age representing the local population were collected as homogenous samples in each season, dried at room temperature.

The results were submitted to Principal Components and Clusters Analysis which enabled four groups of oils to be distinguished with regard to specimens and harvest seasons: clusters I and II with only E. grandis samples collected in the cold and dry winter and the hot and humid summer, which were characterized by a high percentage of isoleptospermone (9.6% and 13.2%), alpha-pinene (12.2% and 24.7%), p-cymene (20.5% and 14.5%), and alpha-terpineol (14.3% and 4.9%), respectively; clusters III and IV only associated with E. urophylla samples collected in summer and winter with 1,8-cineole (36.6% and 44.7%) and alpha-terpinyl acetate (7.0% and 11.7%) rich oils.

Plant material was collected at vegetative stage (stems and leaves,September 2005) and at flowering stage (leaves and flowers,December 2004), inCuritiba,Parana state, Brazil.

Thirty-four components were identified, representing more than 80% of total oil. The major components were beta-caryophyllene (flowers-12.8%), caryophyllene oxide (stems-17.2%), globulol (stems-16.5%; leaves-22.5% at vegetative stage and 18.9% at flowering stage), 1-epi-cubenol (stems-10.9%), epi-alpha-muurolol (stems-16.8%) and alpha-cadinol (stems-12.1%; flowers-10.1%).

Unripe, semi-ripe, and ripe fruits of E. dysenterica were collected in rural area of Abadia de Goias city (S 16° 45′ 1″, W 49° 25′ 5″, 850 m), Goias State, Brazil, in October 2002.

Limonene (25.8% and 24.6%), (E)-beta-ocimene (20.3% and 21.7%) and beta-pinene (12.0% and 14.2%) were the major compounds in the unripe and semi-ripe stages, respectively, while gamma-muurolene (25.8%), beta-caryophyllene (18.4%) and alpha-humulene (15.4%) became the major compounds in ripe fruits. The concentration of monoterpenes was high in the unripe and semi-ripe stages and decreased afterwards, while sesquiterpenes were intensively synthesized only in the last part of the ripening process.

Samples of Glechoma hederacea were collected at full flowering in seven localities in Vilnius district (Lithuania) at 2005: A - Salininkai, B -Zolyno, C - Mistunai, D -Antakalnis, E - Nemencine, F - Seskine, G -Zujunai.

More than half of the oils were rich in sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (56.5-67.9%). The most predominant compound was germacrene D (14.1-20.7%). The other main constituents were gamma-elemene (9.0-16.0%), beta-elemene (8.7-12.9%), phytols (2.8-15.6%), (Z)-beta-ocimene (2.2-8.5%), 1,8-cineole (92.2-5.4%), beta-ylangene (2.7-4.1%) and germacrene B (2.2-3.9%). Forty-three identified compounds made up 89.1-96.2%. Four oils (A, D-G) might be attributed to germacrene / elemene chemotype and three samples (A-C) containing marked amounts of phytols beside above compounds were of germacrene/elemene/phytols chemotype.

The plant material was collected in eastern Lithuania (July-August, 2002). Numbers of growing localities of H. arenarium with yellow (Y) and orange (O) flowers were as follows: Svencionys district (Zalavas) and Ukmerge district (Sventupe).

The 68 constituents identified comprised 73.8-90.7% of the total oil content. It was found that the principal constituents were: beta-caryophyllene (in three inflorescence and one leaf oil), delta-cadinene (in two leaf oils), octadecane (in one leaf oil) and heneicosane (in one inflorescence sample). Monoterpenes and oxygenated monoterpenes made up 4.0-13.9%, aliphatic hydrocarbons 0.4-35.3%, and sesquiterpenes 24.7-71.2% of the oils.

Mentha rotundifolia leaves were collected in the second week of November 2004 in two localities of Algeria (Rouina: altitude 250 m, Miliana: altitude 780 m) within the region of Ain-Defla located in northern Algeria.

Thirty-nine compounds were identified in leaf oil of sample 1 (Rouina, Algeria), the main one being cis-piperitone oxide. Thirty-nine compounds were identified in leaf oil of sample 2 (Miliana, Algeria). The main one being piperitenone oxide.

Seeds of Ocimum basilicum cv. keskenylevelu provided from Hungary, were used in this study. Potted seedlings of Ocimum basilicum were subjected to study the effect of different irrigation rigimes on the essential oil content and composition at experimental farm of college of agriculture, Tarbiat Modarres, University, located in Tehran. (1215 m above sea level, latitude 35° 43′ north, altitude 51° 8′ east). The seeds were sown in spring of 2001 in pots. The irrigation regimes to induce of water stress were: 100%, 85%, 70% and 55% of field capacity. This percentage of field capacity kept constant in the soil by daily weighting of pots. The soil was sandy-loam with 22.6% of field capacity. The harvest of whole plants was performed at the beginning of the flowering stage.

The essential oil content of herb increased from 1.12 to 1.26% as plant water deficit increased (till 70% of field capacity). The number of component of the oil of Ocimum basilicum increased as water stress increase. Amount of the main constituents of the oil such as linalool, methyl chavicol, 1,8-cineole and trans alpha-bergamotene significantly affected by water stress.

The branches of pine were collected in July, 1996 in 15 different locations in Lithuania in the following regions: Western part (Silute, Jurbarkas, Kursiu Nerija), Eastern part (Salcininkai, Zarasai, Moletai), Southern part (Varena, Trakai, Radviliskis) and central part (Ukmerge, Jonava, Kaisiadorys). The branches in each location were collected from the trees in approximately 1 km radius.

More than 70 constituents were identified (64 positively and 10 tentatively) in the oils. alpha-Pinene (18.5-33.0%) and delta-3-carene (9.1-24.6%) were dominating constituents with the only one exception when the germacrene-4-ol content in one of the samples was 13.2%. The important bornyl acetate content varied from 0.5% to 3.0%. The main sesquiterpenes were beta-caryophyllene, germacrene D, bicyclogermacrene, delta-cadinene, gamma-cadinene, germacrene D-4-ol, cubenol (2.0-5.1%) and alpha-cadinol (1.9-7.7%).

The aerial parts (~35 cm) of each taxa growing wild in eight localities of Almeria province were collected in May 1996. All samples were collected at full flowering. Sideritis pusilla (Lange) Pau ssp. pusilla var. typica, Population/location (UTM): Los Matarines (30SWF7992); Sideritis pusilla ssp. pusilla var. carthaginensis Font Quer, Population/location (UTM): Rambla del Hacho (30SWF7178); Sideritis pusilla ssp. pusilla var. granatensis (Pau) Font Quer, Population/location (UTM): Gafarillos (30SWG8702); Sideritis pusilla ssp. almeriensis (Pau) Malagarriga var. typica, Population/location (UTM): Sierra de Gador, Cerro de los Lobos (30SWF3575); Sideritis pusilla ssp. almeriensis var. littoralis Font Quer, Population/location (UTM): Los Morales (30SWF6775); Sideritis pusilla ssp. almeriensis var. salina Font Quer, Population/location (UTM): Los Pedregales (30SWG7835); Sideritis pusilla ssp. flavovirens (Rouy) Malagarriga, Population/location (UTM): Velez Rubio, Cerro del Huezno (30SWG8965); Sideritis pusilla ssp. osteoxylla (Pau) Pallares, Population/location (UTM): Cabo de Gata, Cerro de S. Miguel (30SWF7165)

Monoterpene hydrocarbons, alcohols, sesquiterpenes and diterpenes were the main constituents in all samples. Among these, alpha-pinene (7.1-25.4%), sabinene (5.9-20.4%), fenchone (0.9-19.3%), limonene (1.2-7.4%) and 1,8-cineole (1.8-15.6%) were the major compounds. The results confirm that there are differences between varieties and subspecies, while cluster analysis revealed that the oil composition potentially has chemotaxonomical significance for this taxon.

Plant material and isolation procedure: Aerial parts of the plant were collected from two regions, from Kazeroon in southern Iran and Shahr-e-kord in western Iran at the time of flowering in June 2002.

The main components of the oil of S. pilifera collected from Kazeroon, in southern Iran, were spathulenol (15.8%), cis-chrysanthenol (15.3%), beta-caryophyllene (8.4%) and cis-chrysanthenyl acetate (6.9%), while for the plant collected from Shahr-e-kord, in western Iran, they were cis-chrysanthenyl acetate (21.8%), linalool (18.9%), terpinen-4-ol (11.9%) and cis-chrysanthenol (9.2%).

Plant materials were collected during the flowering period in July 2002 from the Dumluca Mountain in the vicinity of Divrigi village of Sivas city at 1900 m altitude and Saksagan Gorge in Saimbeyli village of Adana city at 1900 m altitude.

The flower, stem and root oils of T. cadmeum ssp. orientale collected from the Adana location were characterized with alpha-thujone (25%, 5.2%), cis-linalool oxide (6.8%, 12.8%), trans-chrysanthenyl acetate (5.8%, 8.5%) for flower and stem oils, and beta-eudesmol (10.3%, 6.2%, 13.8%); in addition, stem oil contained 1,8-cineole (6.6%) and root oil contained hexadecanoic acid (6.0%), spathulenol (5.8%) and beta-muurolol (5.3%). The flower and stem oils of T. cadmeum ssp. orientale collected from the Sivas location were characterized with camphor (25.9%, 14.8%), borneol (15.4%, 25.8%) and alpha-thujone (7.8%, 5.5%); in addition, stem oil contained 1,8-cineole (7.4%) and root oil contained nonacosane (16.2%), spathulenol (6.8%) and hexadecanoic acid (5.8%).

Grape pomaces and stalks of Nero d'Avola and Frappato were donated by the ''Valle dell'Acate'' wine firm, Acate, RG, Italy - those from Nerello Mascalese and Cabernet Sauvignon were given by the ''Emanuele Scammacca Barone del Murgo'' wine firm, Santa Venerina, CT, Italy. The winemaking procedures were similar for all samples, namely grape clusters were crushed and destemmed using a destemmer-crusher. The crushed grapes were treated with sulphur dioxide (0.2-0.5% total mash) and with selected strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae to start up the fermentation. After 6-8 days of maceration, when alcoholic fermentation was finished, the mash was pressed. Stalks coming from destemming procedure and grape pomace coming from the maceration procedure were subjected to the distillation procedures within 24 h of their collection. All materials were collected during the 2004 vintage.

On the whole, 38 components have been characterized in the samples of grape pomaces, with Frappato cv. showing the richest composition; instead, 88 components have been detected in the stalks of Frappato, Nero d'Avola, Nerello Mascalese and Cabernet Sauvignon varieties.