Abstract Stems and leaves, inflorescences and roots from two Daucus species (D. carota and D. guttatus) from Greece were subjected to hydrodistillation. The composition of the obtained essential oils was analyzed by means of GC-FID and GC-MS. This is the first report on the essential oil of D. carota and D. guttatus collected in Greece. In both species, the essential oils from different plant parts were similar in quality, showing mainly quantitative differences. Between the two species, however, not only quantitative, but also significant qualitative differences were observed. The monoterpenes, sabinene (2.3-32.2%), α-pinene (tr-23.9%), terpinen-4-ol (tr-7.7%), and limonene (tr-6.6%), characterized D. carota essential oils, whereas the sesquiterpene hydrocarbon acora-3,7(14)-diene 9.2-60.1%, and the phenylpropane derivatives, epoxy-pseudoisoeugenyl isobutyrate (18.6-64.9%), and epoxy-pseudoisoeugenyl 2-methylbutyrate (0.6-33.0%) were the main constituents of D. guttatus essential oil. According to our results, the chemical profile of the studied taxa can serve as additional evidence for distinguishing these two species.
Keywords Daucus carrota, Daucus guttatus, essential oils, phenylpropane derivatives.