Węglarz Z., Osińska E., Geszprych A., Przybył J.

Intraspecific variability of wild marjoram (Origanum vulgare L.) naturally occurring in Poland. Developmental and chemical analysis of six populations of wild growing Origanum vulgare L. was done. The most segregating morphological and developmental traits were: plant habit, shape and size of leaves, colour of flowers (white, pink, and dark pink) and dry mass of herb (from 243.1 to 636.6 gˇplant-1). The content of essential oil in airdry herb collected at the full blooming stage ranged from 0.35 to 0.55%, and the yield of essential oil – from 1.4 to 3.2 mlˇplant-1. The main constituents of essential oil were: sabinene, terpinene-4-ol, â-pinene and linalool. The studied populations differed in respect of the content of phenolic acids and flavonoids. In all populations the dominant phenolic acid was rosmarinic acid and the dominant flavonoid compound was luteolin 7-O-glucoside.

Key words: morphological traits, herb, essential oil, flavonoids, phenolic acids