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“The girl of Narenj and toranj” is one of the most famous Persian tales about which there are many different narratives. It has been registered by universal code no. 408. It includes some mythical motifs. The motif of the girl’s death and her revival who lives inside fruits, is reminiscent of Plant God. The role of horse, girl’s long hair and her relationship with water, are some other evidences which prove this association. On the other hand, the prevalence of narratives in which the girl comes out of sour orange, citron and pomegranate shows that these fruits were related to myths and they had a kind of importance or special place for the public in the past. In fact, they were used as symbols in some customs like proposal and marriage ceremonies. Sour orange and citron were the symbols of happiness and fertility. Also, pomegranate was the symbol of fertility and blessing. Moreover, it was associated with love and its myths

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One of the critical methods to maintain the stability and functional properties of plant essential oils as a useful source of bioactive compounds against environmental damage is their encapsulation in nanocarrier systems such as nanoliposomes. In this study, nanoliposome containing the citron peel essential oils were prepared without the use of toxic organic solvent and by employing health-giving compounds such as sesame oil in addition to lecithin for the first time in the formulation. The stability of the samples during 30 days of storage at temperatures of 4ºC and -18ºC was determined by investigating the retention amount of phenolic compounds, pH changes, antioxidant and antimicrobial performance. The nanoliposomal samples of essential oils of hydrodistillation and supercritical CO2 of citron peel prepared with different concentrations of lecithin oil had different quantities of pH and phenol retention percentage, and their amount reduced with increasing storage time at both test temperatures. DPPH inhibitory ability and antimicrobial activity of both citron peel essential oils were improved after encapsulation in nanoliposome. But their amount in both storage temperatures decreased with the advancing of time. The nanoliposome of the supercritical fluid essential oil of citron peel respectively with the formulation containing the highest and lowest amount of lecithin oil at the storage temperature of 4ºC showed the best result in this study. Therefore, the citron peel essential oil with encapsulation in the nanoliposome system prepared from lecithin-sesame oil, due to improvement of antioxidant and antimicrobial activity and its higher stability against storage temperature, can be used as an effective natural functional additive in the food industry.


 

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Damask rose (Rosa damascena Mill.), belonging to the Rosaceae family, is a unique species. One of the major and popular growing regions of Damask rose is Kashan and its rose essential oil has unique scent and global reputation. The aim of this study was to compare the variation that naturally exists in quantity and quality of essential oils in different populations and selection of the best population. Unfortunately, there is inadequate information about flower oil yield of different populations of R. damascena from different regions of Kashan. Therefore, flowers of R. damascena Mill. were collected from fifteen important rose oil production regions of Kashan, Iran. The chemical composition of essential oil was analyzed by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. As a result, based on the dendrogram obtained from cluster analysis of chemical component data, fifteen R. damascena populations were grouped into three clusters. A total of fifty-five compounds were identified and quantified by GC–MS analysis in the rose oil. The essential oil contents (w/w) were ranged from 0.0020% to 0.0190% after isolation in Clevenger apparatus. The major components of the oil contained limonene (0.4–12.8%), 2-phenylethyl alcohol (1.0–1.3%), citronellol (16.2–57.8%), geraniol (0.9–14.1%), methyleugenol (0.5–2.5%), heptadecane (0.8–3.0%), 1-nonadecene (2.1–7.5%), nonadec-9-ene (14.9–30.2%), eicosane (1.0–3.3%), heneicosane (5.8–18.6%), tricosane (0.9–5.2%), and pentacosane (0.3–2.1%). The essential oil of Josheghan was considered to have a high quality in terms of richness in citronellol, geraniol, and 2-phenylethyl alcohol monoterpenes and has good potentials as antioxidant and strong fragrance in cosmetic and pharmaceutical industry.