ATR-FTIR Spectroscopy on intact dried leaves of sage (Salvia officinalis L.) – chemotaxonomic discrimination and essential oil composition

Sage (Salvia officinalis L.) is cultivated worldwide for its aromatic leaves which are used as herbal spice and for phytopharmaceutical applications. Fast analytical strategies for essential oil analysis, performed directly on plant material would reduce the delay between sampling and analytical results. This would enhance product quality by improving technical control of cultivation. The attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy method described here provides a reliable calibration model for quantification of essential oil components (EOC) and its main constituents (e.g. -thujone and -thujone) directly on dried, intact leaves of sage. Except for drying no further sample preparation is required for ATR-FTIR and the measurement time of less than 5 min per sample contrasts with the most common alternative of hydro-distillation followed by GC analysis which can take several hours per sample.