The oleoresin labdanum from Cistus creticus was used in ancient Greece as incense, anti-infective, and wound treatment [1]. On
Crete, the main production center since antiquity, it is brushed off the leaves with
long textile strings. After the Ottoman conquest of Crete 1645, Western Europe imported
Spanish labdanum prepared by hot water extraction of aerial parts of Cistus ladanifer. Shortly there- after, labdanum fell out of pharmaceutical use [2]. Presently, C. creticus leaf extracts from Turkey are applied by German self-help groups for borreliosis
therapy [3]. Our results indicate that this anti- spirochaetal activity is mainly
due to manoyloxides in the essential oil [3,4]. Here, 8 labdanum sam- ples were analyzed
by GC-MS for these active constituents, revealing exceptionally high contents of 13-epi-manoyloxide,
2-keto-manoyloxide, ent-3β-hydroxy-13-epi-manoyloxide, manoyloxide, sclareol, and
acetoxy-manoyloxide in the Cretan ones. In other eastern Mediterranean samples, the
concentration of these compounds was several orders of magnitude lower, whereas Spanish
labda- num is dominated by simple alkanes with only trace amounts of manoyloxide and
13-epi-man- oyloxide. Thus, discontinuation of medicinal use of labdanum in Western
Europe is understandable as “labdanum” from C. ladanifer is clearly not equivalent to the traditionally harvested C. creticus drug. Rumors that C. creticus contains psychotropic THC were refuted.
References: 1. Aufmesser, M (2002) Dioscurides. Olms Verlag. Hildesheim. 2. Husemann, T (1889)
Archiv der Pharmazie 227: 1075–1092/1105–1132. 3. Hutschenreuther, A. et al. (2010)
Pharmazie 65: 290–295. 4. Grötzinger, K. et al. (2010) Planta Med 76: 245.
