## 3 Results and Discussion
### Phenolic Compounds
#### 3.2.2. Thyme  
In thyme methanolic extracts, rosmarinic acid was also the main phenolic compound quantified, with high concentrations (Table 6). The lowest content of rosmarinic acid was 23.11 mg/g DW in a subsample of BPVG1295 and the highest amount was 40.45 mg/g DW in a subsample of BPVG10384. Rosmarinic acid is the major phenolic compound reported in the literature [3, 29, 30, 37, 39, 40], but the highest content of rosmarinic acid was reported by [PERSON] et al. [3] (8 mg/g DW), followed by [PERSON] et al. [37] (6.6 mg/g DW). The chromatograms of rosmarinic acid and other major phenolic compounds found in thyme are shown in Figure 3.  
Figure 2: Chromatograms (intensity vs. time, min) of rosmarinic acid and gentistic acid in oregano sample (BPGV10423). \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Accession \({}^{\ast}\)** & **Rosmaritic Acid** & **Quercitrin** & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**IsoMennian-3-O-**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Eridicolyol**} & \\  & & & & & & & \\  & & & & & & & \\  & & & & & & & \\  & & & & & & & \\ \hline
**BPCV10381** & 1.1 & _nd_ & 0  
Quercitrin was the second major phenolic compound in thyme, ranging between 21.03 and 35.36 mg/g DW, followed by isorhannentin-3-O-glucose (3.82 to 14.59 mg/g DW) and luteolin (2.31 to 13.38 mg/g DW). Contrary to our results, several luteolin derivatives were found by [PERSON] et al. [39] in a sample of _T. vulgaris_ collected in Spain, including luteolin 7-O-glucuron, luteolin 7-O-glucose, luteolin 0-hexoside, and luteolin 0-diglucuronide, with luteolin 7-O-glucose being the major compound with 26.43 mg/g. The presence of luteolin \(O\)-hexoside was also reported in _T. mastichina_ samples by [PERSON] et al. [3], but at lower levels (2.87 mg/g DW), more in agreement with our results. Other authors reported that salvianic acids and their derivatives (K, I, A, and B) were another group of phenolic compounds present in high amounts in thyme extracts [3; 41]; however, those compounds were not in the scope of our methodology. Rutin and quercetin were other flavonoids found in thyme extracts, although in lower concentrations. Different concentrations of quercetin were found between samples; for example, a significantly high amount of quercetin was present in a subsample with a common morphotype of BPVG12093 (T8.5) with 5.60 mg/g DW. Also, the common morphotype of BPVG11288 (T5.2) showed a significantly higher content of this flavonoid when compared to the subsample with dark green foliage. Contrary, the common morphotype of BPVG11295 showed a more inferior (\(p<0.05\)) content than the subsample with larger leaves and a revolute margin. Naringenin and eriodyciol, compounds from the flavanones class, were found in similar levels in all thyme extracts, between 1.1 and 4.2 mg/g DW, while salviarentin, a 7-methoxy derivative of naringenin, was found in all thyme extracts but at levels twice as low as the other flavanones (between 0.7 and 2.4 mg/g DW). No flavanones were detected in samples of _T. mastichina_ from Spain [3], but eriodyciol was detected in lower levels in samples of _T. vulgaris_ from Spain at 0.66 mg/g DW with 80% methanol [39] and at similar levels (0.60 mg/g DW) using 50% ethanol as the extraction solvent [34]. Interestingly, the subsample with larger leaves and a revolute margin from the BPVG12093 (T8.3) was the sample with a superior content of flavanones and flavones (\(p<0.05\)). Also, the same tendency was found when comparing the subsamples of BPGV12078. The isoflavone genistein was present in thyme, with the highest amount on a subsample of BPVG10381 (5.22 mg/g DW) and a lower level on BPVG11276 (1.40 mg/g DW). Lower quantities of 4-hydroxybenzoic acid were found in all thyme extracts, ranging from 0.34 to 0.65 mg/g DW, with no statistical differences (\(p>0.05\)) between the common morphotypes for each Accession.