Abstract
Thirty-nine volatile compounds identified in hydrodistilled essential oil (HD) of Egyptian parsley, representing 97.87% of the total oil, while solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) revealed 16 components constituting 96.54% of the volatile material. Monoterpenes were the predominant in both extracts with considerable quantitative differences, while a dramatic decrease in myristicin from 26.21% in HD extract to 4.87% in HS-SPME extract occurred. Myristicin, β-phellandrene and myrecene were the major components among 38 identified components accounting for 92.87% of the total identified volatiles in Madinah hydrodistillate. Parsley essential oil of Madinah exhibited a higher scavenging ability for 2,2ʹ-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl in comparison to Egyptian parsley oil.