diff --git a/public/app/features/templating/interval_variable.ts b/public/app/features/templating/interval_variable.ts
index ab1b0e59442..10977596057 100644
--- a/public/app/features/templating/interval_variable.ts
+++ b/public/app/features/templating/interval_variable.ts
@@ -59,8 +59,9 @@ export class IntervalVariable implements Variable {
   }
 
   updateOptions() {
-   // extract options in comma separated string
-    this.options = _.map(this.query.split(/[,]+/), function(text) {
+    // extract options between quotes and/or comma
+    this.options = _.map(this.query.match(/(["'])(.*?)\1|\w+/g), function(text) {
+      text = text.replace(/["']+/g, '');
       return {text: text.trim(), value: text.trim()};
     });