Santolina is a small genus of the large subfamily Asteraceae of the family Compositae. Species of this genus are used in folk medicine as anthelmintic, antispasmodic, and antifectious agent [1]. Sesquiterpene lactones and volatile terpenes have been isolated from the Spanish subspecies S. rosmarinifolia subsp. canescens, S. rosmarinifolia subsp. rosmarinifolia, and S. chamaecyparissus [2, 3, 4, 5]. Terpenes and acetylene derivatives were reported from the roots of S. corsica [6], but no flavonoids have been reported from these two subspecies. The Algerian species S. rosmarinifolia L. [7] has not been the subject of any phytochemical study. It will be interesting to investigate the presence of 6-methoxyflavones previously reported from S. chamaecyparissus [8, 9].

The aerial parts of S. rosmarinifolia were collected on may 2008 in the region of Batna (North Eastern Algerian) [7]. The voucher specimen was identified by Prof. Gerard De Belair (University Badji-Mokhtar, Annaba) and was...