SAGE
(Common, Garden, True or Dalmatian)

Family: Labiatae

Genus: Salvia

Species: officinalis

(i) General background on the plant

An evergreen shrubby, perennial herb up to 80 cm high with a woody base, soft silver, oval leaves and a mass of deep blue or violet flowers. Sage is native to the Mediterranean regions; but is cultivated world wide especially in Albania, former Yugoslavia, Greece, Italy, Turkey, France, China and the USA.

(ii) Details of quality characters

The table below gives an indication of the constituents of sage oil from four locations in Spain.

 

Murcia

Granada

Jaen

Almeria
1,8-Cineole 24.9 22.8 27.7 19.5
b Pinene 11.5 8.8 13.4 16.8
Camphor 23.2 26.1 30.2 11.4
a Pinene/Tricyclene 7.9 11.3 7.7 8.4
Bornyl Acetate 4.8 8.3 6.2 2.3
Camphene 10.7 9.9 13.4 17.0
Iso Bornyl Acetate 2.3 0.8 - 2.7

(Aqua Oleum 1993)

The volatile oil is about 50% thujone.

(iii) Current production and yields

Guenther (1949) states American sage as producing 0.6 - 1% oil. Whereas Dalmatian sage oil can be as high as 2%. The yield in the UK is about 20 tonnes per ha of fresh product. (ADAS 1980)

(iv) Constraints on production

Sage thrives in sunny conditions. It is grown from seed and plants must be replaced every 3 - 4 years.

(v) Markets and Market potential.

The estimated world production of sage oil is £1,300,000 (Verlet, 1993).

There are no real aromatherapy uses for common sage. Thujone contained in the volatile oil is strongly antiseptic and the oil is used in some pharmaceutical preparations such as mouthwashes, gargles, toothpastes etc. Also as a fragrance in soap, perfumes and as flavourings for food. It has a number of traditional medicinal uses.

(vi) Other information

Leaves are picked in the summer and extraction of oil is by steam distillation of the dried leaves. An Oleresin is also produced from the exhausted plant material.

See the following pages in the NF-2000 Database

FAIR-1914 - Origanum sp. and Salvia sp. integrated breeding research to improve homogeneity and quality of multifunctional secondary plant products

UK Government Funded R on Crops for Industrial and Energy Uses: Section 2 - Pharmaceuticals and Other High Value Products

(vii) Contacts

(viii) References

ADAS (1980) Culinary and medicinal herbs. HMSO.

Guenther, E. 1949. The Essential oils. R. E. Krieger Publishing Company, Inc. Florida, USA.