Ecophytochemistry journal of Medicinal Plants
Year:2016 | Volume:4 | Issue:3 (15)|Papers Count:9

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the medicinal plants are the best source to obtain a variety of drugs. Nowadays, thousands of plant metabolites are being successfully used for the treatment of a variety of diseases. Turmeric (Curcuma longa L.), which holds the unique characteristics of the health sector worldwide known as a functional food ingredient. In the present study, an effective ingredient in turmeric rhizome (curcumin) was extracted with ethanol as a solvent by three.Methods: maceration, ultra-sonic and Soxhlet; then, the yield of extracts from the three methods were calculated. The HPLC technique was used to determine the amount of derived curcumin. Furthermore, the amount of curcuminoids was obtained by thin layer of Chromatography (TLC). The total phenolic content was measured by Folin-ciocalteu reagent and the antioxidant properties was evaluated by DPPH method. The highest extraction yield was obtained from Soxhlettechnique. The results from HPLC were showed that the maximum amount of curcumin was obtained from maceration method. The thin Layer of Chromatography confirmed the presence of curcuminoids in three methods of extraction. The highest phenolic content was reported from maceration method. And the most antioxidant properties were obtained via maceration and ultrasonic extraction method. The conclusions present the importance of determination extraction method to isolate curcumin as a bioactive compound and its importance that is widely used in the treatment of many diseases as well as new drugs synthesized; moreover, the maceration extract is in priority in the maximum amount of curcuminoid, antioxidant and phenolic content.

Thymus L. is an aromatic plant are belonging to the Lamiaceae family based on the synthesis of secondary metabolites widely used for medicinal purposes thymol and carvacrol. The current study aimed at evaluating the quantity and quality of essential oil composition in six species of Thymus: T. daenensis, T. kotschyanus, T. migricus, T. vulgaris, T. transcaucasicus and T. trautvetterii. The experiment was done in a randomized complete block design with three duplications in 2016 in Shahrekord University. Flowering branches in 100% flowering stage within a distance of five centimeters soil surface and water distillation (Clevenger apparatus), were analyzed by GC/MS (p<0.05). treatments on weight and essential volume indicated. T. vulgaris was the highest volume (0.28 ml) and weight of essence (0.27 gr). The comparisons were showed that the T. trautvetterii has the highest yields (1.1 precent) and highest volume percent of oil in T.migricus and was equivalent to 1.02 ml/gr. ρ-cymene (19.46%) and g-terpinene (14.17%) were the abundant components of T. vulgaris, thymol (60.4 %) was the highest in T. daenensis, carvacrol (6.95%) in T. kotschyanus and geraniol (41.38%) was the most in T. trautvetterii. The highest output combined was observed in T. kotschyanus (98.52%).

There exist a number of reports regarding secondary metabolites increasing under the environmental stresses. Hence, to study the effects of drought (70 and 40% field capacity) and salinity (50 mM NaCl) on some morphological and biochemical parameters of summer Savory (Satureja hortensis L.), inclusive fresh and dry weight of leaf, root and shoot, plant height, root length, root to shoot ratio, several leaves and branches, total chlorophyll, chlorophyll a and b, anthocyanin, flavonoids and total alkaloid, an experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with four replications and treatments. Biochemical compounds were measured using spectrophotometric method. The analysis of variance were showed that drought and salinity, plant tissue and their interactions were significantly (p£0.01) different for all chemical compounds except for flavonoids. The results were showed that salt stress did not have negative impact on morphological traits, and in salinity compared to non-stress, plant height (from 18.4 to 19.8 cm), a number of leaves (from 33 to 36) and root fresh weight (from 0.05 to 0.08 gr) increased significantly, but shoot fresh weight (with 0.5 and 0.52 gr), shoot dry weight (0.03 and 0.03 gr), root dry weight (0.02 and 0.016 gr) and leaf dry weight (0.04 and 0.04 gr) did not have any significant differences. All features were affected by drought stress comparison to non-stress so it was determined that summer savory is sensitive to drought and salinity-resistant. The total alkaloid increased under severe drought stress (0.173 OD.g-1.DW) and salinity (0.16 OD.g-1.DW) compared to non-stress (0.12 OD.g-1.DW) about 44 and 33%, respectively. Carotenoids decreased with increasing severity of drought stress, while it increased under salt stress (0.133 mg.g-1.FW) compared with non- stress (0.12 mg.g-1.FW). Flavonoid content was not affected by stress treatments, while the amount of anthocyanins decreased significantly in drought and salinity (0.67 and 0.62 OD.g-1.FW) compared to non-stress (1.23 OD.g-1.FW).

Capparis spinosa L. has been used in traditional medicine of Sistan region to treatment of liver, spleen, anemia and weakness of body diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate the chemical composition of essential oils and optimization of antioxidant activity of Capparis spinosa L. The fruits were harvested from Nik Mohammad, Hirmand region (Sistan and Balouchestan Province) in summer 2014. The essential oil was obtained by hydro-distillation and analyzed by GC and GC-MS. The fruit extract was obtained through microwave method with three solvents (ethanol, methanol and water), extraction times, temperatures and powers of microwave. Then antioxidant capacity was studied by 2, 2’ -diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging method. Essential oils analysis were showed that there were 33 compounds in fruit oil. Thymol (24%) and isothiocyanates (29%) were the most abundant of oil constituents. According to the results, the ethanol extract which obtained by microwave power 300 W, 15 min and temperature 85ºC was optimized treatment for height antioxidant activity. The conclusions were showed that the Capparis fruit extract can be used as the potential source of natural antioxidant to diseases treatment.

Momordica charantia L. (Bitter melon) is a perennial tropical plant belongs to Cucurbitaceae family, in rich of iron, phosphorus, vitamins A and C which has an economic importance, but according to limitations dispersal of this plant in Iran, tissue culture technique is suitable for the mass production of plant seedlings. In this research, the seeds of plant were collected from Zabol area in 2013 and the factorial experiment were done in a completely randomized design at three replications with three factors including explants type (leaves, inter nodes, nodes plus internodes) and phytohormone concentrations (2, 4-D at concentrations of 0, 0.25, 0.5 mg per liter and Benzyl adenine (BA) with concentrations of 0.25, 0.5 and 1 mg per liter), were done in GABIT Tissue culture lab. After three months the length, width, height, percentage of callus, callus color, fresh weight and dry weight were measured, respectively. Variance analysis were showed that, all characteristics in different concentration of BA, 2, 4-D and type of explants and their interaction were observed significant (P<1%). So the maximum width, length, fresh weight and dry weight of callus observed in combination treatment BA (1 mg/l) with a 2, 4-D (0.25 mg/l), interaction between hormone (0.5 mg/l) BA and (0.25 mg/l) 2, 4-D. on leaf explants callus height had a better effect than other factors. Also all concentrations of 2, 4-D and BA had 100 % callus induction in leaf explants, and the most callus have been green and yellow.

Artemisinin is an important medicine for Malaria which has very difficult and expensive chemical synthesis process. Artemisia aucheri Boiss. is very abundant in Iran which has inactive artemisinin biosynthesis genes. The purpose of the current study is to activate artemisinin biosynthesis genes using various light stimulus. Murashing and Skoog (MS) solid medium was used for tissue culture without plant growth regulators. Plants seedling and callus were placed under sterile condition at 25±oC and exposed to different light treatment and UV irradiation. The control group was located under light condition similar to the sunlight. Plant callus was subculture per 3 weeks for 5 months. The thin layer chromatography (TLC) was used to determine of artemisinin in the dichloromethanolic extracts of plant or callus. The results were showed that the artemisinin produced in the 3000 lux treated seedling and callus that were exposed to UV-B 340nm irradiation. The production of artemisinin in Artemisia aucheri Boiss.is reported based on the qualitative evaluations (TLC). Conducting a bigger number and more accurate experiments are necessary in this field regarding quantitative measurements.

Salvia leriifolia Bench.is belongs to Laminaceae family, which as antioxidant, antibacterial, sedative and anti-diabetes properties. In the present study, the quality and quantity of plant essential oil in different various growth stages were evaluated. The leaves of plant were collected during vegetative, blooming and seed maturity from natural habitat (Abkhovan Sabzevar, Khorasan Razavi province) and greenhouse in spring 2012. Essential oils were obtained by hydro distillation method (Clevenger apparatus) and analyzed by GC and GC / MS. The results were showed that in blooming stage especially in natural habitat, the plant had the highest essential oil content (1.04%) in which the camphor (23.85%), b-pinene (9.8%), 1, 8-cineol (8.04%) and α-pinene (6.87%) were the most abundant essential oil constituents. Furthermore, in both regions camphor, b-pinene and a-pinene were the most constituents of plant oils, but in seed maturity stage the oil content (0.65%) was decreased and the camphor wasn' t recorded, while in other stages the camphor were the highest content in both regions.

Elaeagnus angustifolia L. is regarded as one of the most important medicinal and nutritious plants since it contains flavonoid, sitosterols, cardiac glycosides and terpenoids compounds. The purpose of this study was to investigating the effects of extraction conditions on phenol and flavonoid content from methanolic extracts of Elaeagnus angustifolia (peel, pulp and seed) through ultrasound and maceration methods. The response surface methodology (RSM) was used to optimize the extraction conditions for highest extraction rates of phenolic and flavonoid compounds. Box Behnken design was employed to investigate the effects of the three independent variables including solvent to sample ratio (20-50 ml/g), temperature (30-60oC) and extraction time (5-35 min) on the dependent variables (extraction yield, phenolic and flavonoid contents). The total phenolic content was measured using the Folin-Ciocalteu’s reagent. The total flavonoid content was assessed by the colorimetric method based on Aluminum Chloride which underwent some changes. The variance coefficients indicated that the effect of ultrasound temperature on the extraction yield was more influential than the other ones (p<0.05). The optimum extraction condition was solvent to sample ratio (31.79 ml/g), temperature (52.87oC (and extraction time (25.44 min (. The optimum conditions, extraction yield, phenolic and flavonoid contents were 21.58 mg/g, 106.31 (mgGAEg-1) and 32.98 (mgQUEg-1), respectively. Considering the comparison between the two extraction methods, it was shown that extraction efficiency of phenolic and flavonoid compounds through ultrasound method is more than maceration method. Thus, the use of ultrasound-assisted extraction is recommended to extract phenolic compounds from the fruits of Elaeagnus angustifolia.

Matricaria chamomilla L. is an annual plant belongs to Asteraceae family, which has been used and cultivated globally as an antioxidant and anti-inflammation. This project was carried out to determine the best treatment of seed moisture content and storage temperature to maintain maximum viability in addition to investigation impact of various coating package in seed storage. A factorial experiment was conducted in completely randomized design and rates of studied factors were 30, 60, 90, 120, 150 and 180 days for time; 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13% for seed moisture; 10, 15, 20 and 25oC for storage temperature, aluminum and nano cottage for package. Increasing storage time caused reduction in seeds viability under high temperature and moisture condition. Whereas, in nano package (NP) it was lesser compared to aluminum package (AP). NP had better performance in most temperature and moisture rates. Germination percent (GP) was 95% in moisture of 5 and 7%, 25oC and 30 days. This treatment had 1 percent reduction after 6 months which was not significant. It seems that low moisture neutralized negative effect of rising temperature. Moisture of 9%, 25oC and 30 days led to 84% of GP in both packages which reduced to 55 and 51% after 6 months in NP and AP, respectively. It can be suggested that moisture of 5 and 7% under 10oC and NP is the best condition for chamomile seeds storage which maintain seeds viability for long-term.