Basil Oil and Tarragon Oil: Composition and Genotoxicity Evaluation

ABSTRACT The chemical composition of an Italian oil of tarragon and two commercial oils of basil were examined by GC/MS. The oils, which were found to contain 19 known compounds, possessed estragole contents of 60%, 8.1% and 16.5%, respectively. The genotoxicity of each oil was evaluated by the Zimmermann test. The oil of tarragon was found to be genotoxic, but the two basil oils exhibited no sign of genotoxicity. The genotoxicity, or lack of it, could not be demonstrated clearly to have a direct relationship to the estragole content only.