Sideritis arguta is widespread over in Turkey. The essential oil of Sideritis arguta are used for flavoring of foods and in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and perfumery industries and in folk medicine.

The use of supercritical fluids for extraction can be considered one of the most potentially useful new methods in isolation of volatile compounds.

Sideritis species are a group of plants known as “ mountain tea” in Turkey. Local names are “dag çayi” or “yayla çayi” in Turkish. Sideritis sp is widespread over Turkey. The essential oil of Sideritis sp can be interesting for food flavoring and in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and perfumery industries. Infusion of aerial parts of a number of Sideritis species are used as tonics, carminatives, as anti-inflammatory agents, antispasmodics, diuretics, and digestives, and in the treatment of colds.

Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE), mainly using carbon dioxide is the most popular process to extract volatile compounds from natural products. Carbon dioxide is the preferred solvent in the food industry because it is nontoxic, non-corrosive, low-cost, nonflammable, readily available and has low critical temperature and pressure. There is considerable interest in replacing steam distillation and solvent extraction processes traditionally used to obtain aromatic extracts, thereby avoiding thermal degradation of aroma compounds and the presence of solvent residues in the extracts. The extraction of essential oils and oleoresins by SFE may provide higher quality products. Many studies involving the extraction of natural aroma compounds by this procedure are reported.

The composition of the essential oils of several species of Sideritis grown in Turkey have been studied. The essential oil components of aerial parts from Sideritis bilgerana, Sideritis tmolea and Sideritis congesta were investigated using GC and GC/MS.

Figure 65. Sideritis arguta Boiss.et Heldr.