Abstract
Salvia officinalis L. is a Mediterranean species, naturalized in many countries. The composition of essential oil isolated from Salvia officinalis L, wild growing in Libya, was analyzed. In this study, essential oils from fresh and dry leaves of Salvia officinalis L, Libya, were extracted with ethanol, hexane or chloroform as solvents using Soxhlet apparatus and the extracts were analyzed using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry method. Each solvent showed differences in the extraction yields between fresh and dry leaves. Physical constants of the extracts were shown variation in color, viscosity, density, PH and percentage of production between fresh and dry leaves for each solvent. GC-MS results showed that ethanol could extract the most compounds compared to hexane and chloroform from both fresh and dry leaves. In total 41, 28 and 31 compounds were identified in the essential oils of fresh and dry leaves of Salvia officinalis L using ethanol, hexane or chloroform respectively. For each solvent the number of compounds extracted from dry leaves was bigger than the number extracted from fresh leaves. arabic 33 English 104