Chemotaxonomy ofThapsia maximaMiller. Constituents of the Essential Oil of the Fruits

Abstract
The essential oils from the fruits of two different morphological types of T. maxima Miller (I and II), both with the chromosome number 2n=22 (2x), have been characterized. The phenotypic traits of the plants and the results from the analyses of the essential oils by combined GC/MS are reported. The two phenotypes showed similar compositional patterns with limonene (34–27%) and methyl eugenol (59–63%) as main components, indicating that T. maxima I and II represent one chemotype within the genus Thapsia. Neither of the two types contained thapsigargins in the roots.