1: J Agric Food Chem. 2007 Jul 25;55(15):6082-6. Epub 2007 Jun 30.

Effect of gamma and e-beam radiation on the essential oils of Thymus vulgaris
thymoliferum, Eucalyptus radiata, and Lavandula angustifolia.

Haddad M, Herent MF, Tilquin B, Quetin-Leclercq J.

Laboratoire de Pharmacognosie, Unité d'Analyse Chimique et Physico-Chimique des
Médicaments, Université Catholique de Louvain, UCL 72.30-CHAM, Avenue Emmanuel
Mounier 72, 1200 Bruxelles, Belgium. mohamed.haddad@cham.ucl.ac.be

The microbiological contamination of raw plant materials is common and may be
adequately reduced by radiation processing. This study evaluated the effects of
gamma- and e-beam ionizing radiations (25 kGy) on three plants used as food or as
medicinal products (Thymus vulgaris L., Eucalyptus radiata D.C., and Lavandula
angustifolia Mill.) as well as their effects on extracted or commercial essential
oils and pure standard samples. Comparison between irradiated and nonirradiated
samples was performed by GC/FID and GC/MS. At the studied doses, gamma and e-beam
ionizing radiation did not induce any detectable qualitative or quantitative
significant changes in the contents and yields of essential oils immediately
after ionizing radiation of plants or commercial essential oils and standards. As
the maximum dose tested (25 kGy) is a sterilizing dose (much higher than doses
used for decontamination of vegetable drugs), it is likely that even
decontamination with lower doses will not modify yields or composition of
essential oils of these three plants.

PMID: 17602644 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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