CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PHYTOCHEMICAL STUDY OF THE POLYPHENOLIC FRACTIONS SEPARATED FROM THYMUS PULEGIOIDES L. NATURAL POPULATIONS HARVESTED IN NORTHERN ROMANIA

Thymus pulegioides L. represents one of the plant species that are part of Serpylli herba , a drug used in therapeutics as a stomachic, carminative, expectorant and diuretic and also in nutrition as a flavouring agent. In our study we evaluated the quantitative determination of polyphenolcarboxylic acids and flavonoids from 24 samples of T. pulegioides collected from spontaneous flora in North-East Romania. We also aimed for the identification of some components by means of high-performance liquid chromatography. We detected the presence of a high chemical variability of the polyphenolic fraction going up to the level of the different bioactive components. To better control the pharmaceutical quality of the plant material it would be desirable to introduce this species into culture.