Ten different plants of wormwood were collected in March 1997 from each one of the following four wild populations in the Spanish Pyrenees: Tallo de Aulet (prov. Huesca) and Pont de Suert, Sort and Farga de Moles (prov. Lleida). In three of the four populations studied, there was another chemotype, with 25-65% of cis-epoxyocimene and 15-50% of chrysanthenyl acetate. This chemotype, called chemotype B, was less frequent in the Pyrenees than the chemotype A, appearing only in 17% of the samples (two samples in TallO de Aulet and in Pont de Suert and three samples in Farga de Moles).

Two chemotypes were detected; a cis-epoxyocimene type (with more than 50% of this compound) which was predominant in all the populations, and a cis-epoxyocimene + chrysanthenyl acetate type (with 25-65% of cis-epoxyocimene and 15-50% of chrysanthenyl acetate). The distribution of these chemotypes had no relation with the altitude of the samples.

Populations of A. annua cultivar 'Jeevanraksha' and accession Suraksha were grown in the experimental field plot of the Institute at New Delhi. The seeds were sown in January 2004, seedlings transplanted in late February 2004 and aerial parts (flowers, leaves and stems from the upper 0.5 m of crop canopy) sampled in late October 2004.

Ninety-seven compounds comprising 91.3% of the total oil of 'Jeevanraksha' were identified. Forty-three monoterpenes (56.6%), 32 sesquiterpenes (31.1%), and 2 diterpenes (0.2%) comprised bulk of the oil (87.9%). The oil was devoid of artemisia ketone and contained camphor (13.5%), 1,8-cineole (9.4%), trans-sabinol (7.1%), p-mentha-1(7), 5-dien-2-ol (6.3%), myrcene (4.7%), germacrene D (4.4%), (E)-beta-farnesene (3.9%), beta-caryophyllene (3.7%), dihydroartemisinic lactone (3.0%) and p-cymene (2.0%) as the major constituents. Eighty-six compounds representing 93.3% of the composition were identified in the Suraksha oil. This oil contained artemisia ketone (47%), 1,8-cineole (8.4%), camphor (5.9%) and alpha-pinene (5.2%) as the major components.

Plant material: Samples of L. latifolia were collected in August 1998 during the full flowering period (L/La) and in October 1998 during the fruiting period (L/Lb) from three different spike lavender populations located into the Cazorla, Segura y Las Villas Natural Park (Jaen province, Spain). The plant material from each population consisted of the twigs of several single plants. L/La (Location: 'Garganta de Hornos', Altitude (m): 950, Harvesting date: August 14, 1998, Phenological stage: Flowering); L/Lb (Location: 'Garganta de Hornos', Altitude (m): 950, Harvesting date: October 15, 1998, Phenological stage: Fruiting).

The small amounts of linalool needed to match the standard can be reached in a natural way (from full flowering to fruiting) which means it is important to choose the most convenient time of harvest in the studied area.

Myrtle (M. communis var. italica) aerial parts were collected monthly during 2006-2007 from Jbal Stara of Haouaria region in North Tunisia, belonging to a subhumid bioclimate.

In conclusion, high fluctuations were observed in the oil yields and composition of different parts of Myrtus communis var. italica during all the collecting periods. They could be explained by genetic and environmental factors. Moreover, significant differences were revealed in the main oil compounds. alpha-Pinene percentages showed the most remarkable changes among the different part oils. So, leaf oils contained more alpha-pinene than those of the fruits and stems during the myrtle vegetative cycle.

The 36 'Genovese' and 24 'Foglia di Lattuga' samples preliminarily analysed were grown in Tavazzano (MI), and harvested at flowering, from 5th to 10th August 1998. The breeding program started in 1999, by crossing several selected lines of 'Genovese' with 'Foglia di Lattuga' and 'Compatto'. Selected F1 plants were selfpollinated in 2000. Plants of the F2 (2001), F3 (2002) and F4 (2003) generations were selected on the basis of agronomic and morphologic traits, and self-pollinated. Only the seeds from self pollinated plants with satisfactory essential oil content and composition were used to obtain the next generation. In 2004, some F4 plants were replanted in order to evaluate their stability in relation to environmental variations. All leaf harvests were carried out at flowering.

Genovese' showed higher essential oil and linalool content, with almost total absence of methyl chavicol, very abundant in 'Foglia di Lattuga'.

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%).

Plant materials were collected from the following localities. A: Antalya: Alanya, Sapadere, Beldibi-Baskoy in July 1991 (ESSE 9562). B: Icel: Anamur, Kas yaylasi in July 1991 (ESSE 9192).

Thirty-nine components were characterized in each oil representing 85-90% of the total components detected with beta-pinene (34-35%) and alpha-pinene (24-25%) as major constituents.

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 from the following localities in north western Turkey. A = Trabzon: Caykara, Soganli dag on July 28, 1994; B = Bayburt: Caykara, Mohakambo yaylasi on July 25, 1994; C = Trabzon: Koprubasi, Vizara yaylasi on July 20, 1994.

One hundred and four compounds were identified representing 97.5-99.5% of the total components detected in thymol/carvacrol (50.14/10.67%), thymol/linalool (23.14/20.24%) and linalool/alpha-terpinyl acetate/geraniol (21.55/16.70/11.17%) rich oils.

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.

3-year old single shoot V. vinifera plants (cultivar Pinot noir 18 Gm grafted on Kober 5BB, 51 plants) potted in 3L pots in a sandy loam soil were used. All plants were well watered (200 mL per day) at the beginning of the experiment (04.06.2010; DAY 0; 5 plants) and water was supplied to all control plants once every day (250 mL per day), whereas water supply of stressed plants was stopped. Physiological measurements and sampling of leaves took place on 07.06.2010 (DAY 3; 5 control, 5 stressed plants), 10.06.2010 (DAY 6; 5 control, 5 stressed plants) and 12.06.2010 (DAY 8; 5 control, 10 stressed plants). Due to very hot weather conditions in June 2010 the experiment was stopped after 8 days and 12 available control plants were used to restart the drought treatment with 6 control and 6 stressed plants on 11.06.2010 and all plants were measured on 15.06.2010 (DAY 5). The mean leaf temperatures at midday were: 25 ℃ (04.06.2010; DAY 0), 31.9 ℃ (07.06.2010; DAY 3), 30.8 ℃ (15.06.2010; DAY 5), 35.8 ℃ (10.06.2010; DAY 6) and 35.7 ℃ (12.06.2010; DAY 8). The mean PAR radiation per day (measured from 6:00 am till 7:00 pm) was 144.1 µmol m^-2 s^-1. Each plant was used only once for physiological measurements and sampling of leaves.On every day of the experiment (day 0, 3, 5, 6, 8) the pot weight and the volumetric soil moisture content (ThetaProbe ML2x and handheld data logger Moisture Meter HH2, Delta-T Devices, Cambridge, United Kingdom) was recorded. The water potential (PWSC Model 3000, Soilmoisture Equipment Corporation, Santa Barbara, USA) was determined for the 6th leaf (representing the insertion level of the shoot from the basis) of every plant and measurement day. Chlorophyll fluorescence and gas exchange parameters of light adapted leaves were determined with the 4th and 5th leaf, whereas dark adaptation was performed only with the 5th leaf. Immediately after these non-invasive measurements, the 5th leaf was harvested, frozen in liquid nitrogen and further used for the measurement of polyphenols, selected primary metabolites and volatiles (VOCs).

The content of different groups of primary and secondary metabolites is significantly influenced by severe drought stress in grapevine leaves. The content of the majority of the metabolites (around 60% of primary metabolites, around 85% of polyphenols and about 40% of the detected and identified VOCs) increased upon drought stress treatment. Among these especially the primary metabolites citric acid and glyceric acid were strongly influenced by the short as well as the prolonged drought stress treatment, whereas all polyphenols were only induced upon the prolonged drought stress treatment.