Research Information System
Scientia Horticulturae, vol.327, 2024 (SCI-Expanded)
Salvia officinalis L. is the sage most commonly used in herbal teas. However high contents of thujone and camphor often makes S. officinalis less desirable. Hybridization of S. Fruticosa Mill., S. Aramiensis Rech. Fil. and two selections of S. officinalis was completed in efforts to develop sage hybrids with suitable phenotypic and chemotypic characteristics for production and processing into herbal teas. S. officinalis genotype was used only as the mother plant due to the lack of pollen while S. fruticosa and S. aramiensis were used both as mother and father and crossed reciprocally. For two years, a total of 8148 flowers were hybridized, 2022 seeds were obtained, 349 hybrid plants germinated from these seeds and 288 plants were examined. Essential oil contents and components of hybrid genotypes were determined. Essential oil contents of hybrid genotypes varied between 0.50 % and 4.21 %. When the essential oil components were analyzed 1.8 cineole amount varied between 0 and 70.14 %, α-thujone amount varied between 0 and 36.58 %, β-thujone level varied between 0 and 34.14 % and camphor level varied between 0.42–66.97 %. Five of the hybrid genotypes (Sf×Sa-6, So×Sa-5, So×Sa-13, So×Sf-5, and So×Sf-6) were selected because of 3 % or higher essential oil content, 60 % or higher amount of 1.8 cineole, 5 % or less α-thujone, β-thujone and camphor amount. Our results showed that hybridization resulted in significant changes in phenotypic and chemotypic characteristics compared to the parent species, highlighting the potential of hybridization as a tool for creating novel Salvia cultivars with unique characteristics.