Rosemary
This native plant of the Mediterranean region is now cultivated world-wide in California, Russia, Middle East, England, France, Spain, Portugal, ex-Yugoslavia, Morocco, Tunisia, China, etc. The main oil-producing countries are Morocco, Tunisia and Spain.
Rosemary is scientific designated as Rosmarinus Officinalis of which some synonyms are R. coronarium, compass plant, and incense (1).
Traditionally, rosemary was one of the earliest plants to be used for food, medicine and magic, being regarded as sacred in many civilisations (1). Springs of rosemary were burnt at shrines in ancient Greece; fumigations were used in the Middle Ages to drive away evil spirits, and to protect against plague and infectious illness.
Rosemary is a shrubby evergreen bush up to two metres high with silvery green, needle-shaped leaves and pale blue flowers. The whole plant is strongly aromatic.
The essential oil is obtained by steam distillation of the leaves and flowers; it is a pale yellow mobile liquid, with density next to 0.9.
It belongs to the Lamiaceae (Labiatae) family, which has a very large number of genera and almost 3000 species. That large number of Rosmarinus Officinalis L. is a source of difficulties because they are different in botanical and chemical point of view.
The essential oil chemical composition is qualitatively homogeneous when we change the geographic origin, but quantitatively different.
From the chemical point of view the main constituents of the essential oil are: a-pinene, myrcene, limonene, 1,8 cineol and camphor.
It is possible to define, in order to the most important compound, three groups of
rosemary (chemotypes):
The plant, and it essential oil, could be used in several food preparation as aromatic agent. It is also used extensively in soaps, detergent, cosmetic and perfume industries. Perhaps one of the most important use of rosemary is it the utilisation as a natural source of antioxidants, that can be extract by conventional way (solvent extraction) or using supercritical fluids.