Spanish sage or lavender sage (Salvia lavandulifolia Vahl) is an aromatic plant with
a high economic potential in agriculture because of its rusticity and low chemical
inputs. However, the presence of numerous chemotypes hinders the supply of homogeneous
crops to the industry and makes the selection and the standardising of the
plant material necessary. With this aim, our group achieved an extensive population
survey of this species across the Iberian Peninsula to investigate the variability of this
species and started a selection program based in multienvironment trials. Thus, 12
wild populations of S. lavandulifolia have been grown in two different localities and
their dry biomass production, yield, and composition of essential oil have been monitored
during 2 yr of cultivation to evaluate the effect of the genotype × environment
interaction on these traits. Each population presented a clearly differentiated composition
of the essential oil, although camphor (15.3% average), 1,8-cineole (15.0%),
α-pinene (11.3%), β-pinene (8.5%), and limonene (7.5%) were the main compounds.
Other compounds like p-cymene, γ-terpinene, bornyl acetate, spathulenol, or viridiflorol
were only present in some samples. The yield of essential oil ranged from 0.9
to 2.3 g per 100 g dry biomass, and the dry biomass from 76 to 322 g plant−1. Despite
the high variability of these traits, we inferred that the essential oil composition in S.
lavandulifolia is chiefly determined by genetics which suggests that individual plants
(clones) with a favorable composition for a specific application could be selected and
bred with a homogeneous quality over time.
