Essential oil crops – agricultural crops, in seeds, inflorescences, leaves, stems and other plant organs that contain volatile aromatic substances – essential oils.
Essential oil crops include:
- Apiaceae or Umbelliferae:
- Lamiaceae or Labiatae:
- clary sage;
- peppermint;
- lavender.
- Essential oil crops (Русская версия)
Meaning
Essential oils are a mixture of organic compounds: carbohydrates, alcohols, phenols, aldehydes, esters, ketones, organic acids and other complex organic substances. Most essential oils are present in the chemical composition of plants in a free form.
The content of essential oils in plants of essential oil crops varies over a very wide range: from thousandths of a percent to 22%. The content of essential oils also varies within plants of the same species, but much less, and depends on the soil and climatic conditions of cultivation, age, phase of plant development and other conditions. For example, in a warm and dry climate, plants accumulate more essential oils than in a cold and humid one. As a rule, the highest content of essential oils in plants falls on the phase of flowering and seed ripening.
In Russia and the countries of the former USSR, approximately 30 species of essential oil plants are cultivated, most of which belong to the Celery ( Umbelliferae ) or Lamiaceae ( Labiatae ) family.
The sown area occupied by essential oil crops in the USSR in 1984 was more than 180 thousand hectares.
Sources
Crop production / P.P. Vavilov, V.V. Gritsenko, V.S. Kuznetsov and others; Ed. P.P. Vavilov. – 5th ed., revised. and additional – M.: Agropromizdat, 1986. – 512 p.: ill. – (Textbook and textbooks for higher educational institutions).
Fundamentals of agricultural production technology. Agriculture and crop production. Ed. V.S. Niklyaev. – M .: “Epic”, 2000. – 555 p.