Chemotypes

<p><a href="https://www.amrita.net/blog/what-are-essential-oil-chemotypes/">What are chemotypes?</a></p>

<p>A &ldquo;chemotype&rdquo; or &ldquo;chemovar&rdquo; is a chemically distinct entity of a plant. Chemotypes have the same genus and species, but the chemical constituents of the plant are different (e.g. they may have different secondary metabolites) due to minor genetic or epigenetic changes. Epigenetics is where different genes in the plant are switched on due to environmental factors.&nbsp;

Essential oils are formed by the MAP as secondary metabolites, and are very heterogeneous mixtures that may contain dozens of compounds at different concentrations. In fact, each essential oil is characterized by some major compounds which can reach high levels, as compared to other compounds present in trace amounts. However, for a given species, natural factors may be at the origin of the variability of the chemical composition of these essential oils, and a subsequent variability in their quality. These factors may be intrinsic, related to the plant or extrinsic, such as the plant environment, which causes the occurrence of several chemical races or <a href="http://omicsonline.org/searchresult.php?keyword=chemotypes" target="_blank">chemotypes</a> within the same species.</p>

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<td>The fact that essential oils are natural products, they should not be considered as common ingredients without any side effects. Indeed, for a given species, the study of the chemical variability of essential oils and the determination of its chemotypes are of prime importance, because they can determine not only different bioactivities of these extracts, but also very different signs of toxicity. For this reason, the analysis of the chemical composition of the essential oil should not be limited to one or a few plant samples derived from a single geographical location, which is very common in many publications in this field.In</td>

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<td>the literature and in most cases, only the main constituents of essential oils have been considered for the chemotypes determination. However, it is worth noting that minor compounds can play a very important role in the chemical polymorphism of a given species. In addition, the biological activity of an essential oil may be due to a synergistic action of some minor compounds. In this way, an essential oil is defined not only by its major compounds, but rather by a majority of all its compounds. To highlight the existence of chemotypes among several populations of a given species, the linear discriminant analysis and cluster analysis (<a href="http://omicsonline.org/searchresult.php?keyword=dendrogram" target="_blank">dendrogram</a>) generated from the Euclidean distances performed on the essential oils compounds, are interesting statistical tools.</td>

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<td>It can be concluded that biological properties of essential oils must take into account different parameters and factors, which can significantly affect results of these studies (phenological stage, plant harvest, ecological factors and environmental conditions). Thus, the chemical profile of each plant species will be expressed differently depending on these factors. We should focus our efforts in considering and valorizing our vegetal patrimony, to identify new attractive natural compounds with therapeutic potential devoid of toxicity, or at least less toxic than synthetic ones. Consequently, more scientific research on chemical analysis, biological and toxico-clinical investigations should be conducted on PAM and their derivatives. Another challenge for the rational exploitation of essential oils by relevant industries is their quality control, as well as the legislation texts regarding their applications.</td>

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