Ecophytochemistry journal of Medicinal Plants
Year:2014 | Volume:2 | Issue:3 (7)|Papers Count:9

In this research, the aerial parts of Alyssum maritimum and Achillea wilhelmsii were collected from greenhouse of the university of Sistan and Baluchestan and Taftan area in same province, respectively. Essential oil was obtained by hydro-distillation using Clevenger apparatus, it was analyzed by GC/MS and antioxidant activity were obtained by DPPH test. Results showed that the Alyssum maritimum oil with 32 compounds representing 99.246%, was identified and 3-butenyl iso thiocyanate (85.205%), naphtha [1, 2-c] furan-3 (1H)-one (3.059%), 2-thiazolecarboxylic acid, 4- methyl-, ethyl ester (2.872%) and cyclohexasiloxan, dodecamethyl (1.331%) were the major components.  but in essential oil of Achillea wilhelmsii from 58 constituents representing, grandisol (13.098%), necrodol (10.576%), 1, 8-cineole (8.470%), thujone (8.249%), methyl-1-vinyl-2 isopropylcyclobutane-1 (8.008%), sabinene (5.700%), linalool (4.595%) and a- terpineol (4.342%) were the major constituents, respectively. The obtained results showed that the ethanolic extract had better antioxidant activity than the chloroformic extract.

A total of 50 garlic (Allium sativum L.) ecotypes were collected from important garlic producing provinces of North and North West of Iran. After initial morphological comparison, 20 different ecotypes were selected and cultured in pots conditions as randomized in completely block design with 3 replications. At the end of the growing season morphological traits such as plant height, number of leaves per plant at 135 days after planting, fresh bulb weight, bulb diameter and clove number per bulb and dry weight of clove were characterized. Flowering date, type of flowers, fresh and dry weight of aerial cloves and other plant physiological traits were evaluated. The pungency of ecotypes were analyzed by measuring of pyruvic acid (PA) content by spectroscopy method. ANOVA showed that the effect of genotype for all studied traits were statistically significant. Yield (wet bulb weight) indicated positive correlation with plant height and diameter of the bulb and its height. High positive correlation between pungency and total bulb dry weight were observed. Cluster analysis of ecotypes divided them into 3 major groups that shoed good geographic areas agreement with plant high. Based on these results, selection on plant height, bulb diameter and bulb height, can be effective markers for development of garlic breeding programs.

In this research due to investigation of total phenolic content (TPC) of essential oil and flavonoid content of six Artemisia extracts (A.absinthium, A.oliveriana, A.turanica, A.ciniformis, A.diffusa and A. Aucheri), aerial parts of plants were collected from Khorasan, Semnan and Azarbaygan provinces and their essential oils were obtained by hydro distillation using a Clevenger-type apparatus. TPC was expressed as Gallic acid equivalent (GAE) in mg/mg GAE using the Folin-Ciocaltau assay. The concentrations of total flavonoid in methanol extracts were expressed as milligram of catechin equivalent (CE) per gram of extract using AlCl3 colorimetric assay. The results showed that highest amount of TPC was observed in A. oliveriana (348.87±6.11 µg/mg GAE) and the highest amount of TFC was observed in A. diffusa (332.74±9.64 mg/g CE). Since the plant phenolic and flavonoid compounds have an important role in antioxidant activity, it can be concluded that the oil of A. oliveriana and the extract of A. diffusa have the highest amount of antioxidant capacity because They have rich amount of total phenolic and flavonoid, respectively.

Heracleum belongs to Apiaceae family with more than 70 species “Golpar” is the common aromatic herbs which is growing in Anatolia, Transcaucasia, Iraq and Just has 4 endemic species in Iran, which has been used as a flavoring medicine herbs in many Iranian food products. In this study to investigate of Heracleum pastinacifolium essential oil composition, the plant seeds were collected from different altitudes of Arasbaran (1500, 1700 and 1900 m). Essential oils were obtained by hydro distillation (Clevenger apparatus) and analyzed by GC and GC/MS. Results showed that in 1900m not only the yield oils, but also the main oil constituents such as octyl acetate (76.6%), hexyl butyrate (9.6%) and octanol (5.6%( were increased respectively, and so there is direct correlation between height region and the quality and yield essential oil.

In this research influence of some environmental factors on seed germination and seedling emergence of Salvia hypoleuca were studied. Five factorial experiments with four replications was conducted in Department of Medicinal Plants Research Center in Karaj. Light experiment included three levels of light, darkness and light-darkness. Planting depth (0.5, 1, 1.5, 2 and 3 cm), flooding stress (0, 1, 3, 6 and 10 days), osmotic potential (0, -2, -4, -6 and -8 Bar ) and salinity stress were in five levels ( 0, 100, 150, 200 and 250 mM),  respectively. Results showed that optimum germination and emergence occurred in light stimulating treatment and planting depth of 1 cm and germination percentage was decreased as the NaCl concentration (250 mM). Information gained from this study, improve our understanding of different germination behaviors of Salvia hypoleuca under different environmental conditions.

Global attitude to using of natural essential oil in different industry point the necessary to identifying the aromatic plants and their chemical components. So in this research aerial parts of Phlomis cancellata Bunge., in blooming were collected from its natural habitat in Chaloos (2100 m), essential oil was obtained by hydro distillation (Clevenger type) and then analyzed by GC and GC-MS. Results showed that from 28 chemical components of plant oil,  five chemical compounds: germacrene-D (37.2%), a-copaene (9%), methyl octadecanoate (8.6%), b-elemene (7.5%) and b-bourbonene (5.1%), respectively were the most components in essential oil and introduced that that the sesquiterpenes were the main constituents to other terpenes.

Native aromatic plants uses as the oldest known source to prevent and treat of current infectious diseases in many centuries. In this study to evaluated of antibacterial activity of ethanolic extracts of Ziziphora tenuior L. and Trachyspermum copticum L., aerial parts of both plants were collected from their natural habitats (Azadshahr-North of iran), then ethanolic extracts were obtained by perculation method and their four concentrations (500, 250, 125, and 62.5 mg/ml) were used for antibacterial test against four species of Gram-positive and five Gram-negative bacteria by disc diffusion and agar well methods. The results showed that the ethanol extract of both plants have significant antibacterial effects against all tested bacteria, especially in well method. The most susceptible bacteria were S.aureus and S.epidetrmidis that showed inhibition zone diameter of 30, 26 mm in well method, respectively and gram negative bacteria were less susceptible than gram positive bacteria. So the results will be confirm the ethnopharmacology findings of these plants in traditional uses of this region, as an antiseptic and anti-pathogen and can be explained as a key clues to conduct clinical studies, extraction and production of effective and safe drugs for treat of many infectious diseases.

Urinary tract infections (UTI) and resistance against synthetic antibiotics is globally increasing. Medicinal plants in which containing a large numbers of bioactive natural components play an important role in treatment of some infectious diseases. Mentha longifolia (L.) Hud. Which has been used in the traditional medicine of Iran to cure urinary tract infectious diseases. In this study due to evaluate antibacterial effect of different concentrations of ethanolic extract from Mentha longifolia, the aerial parts of plant in blooming were collected from Ziarat (915m), Alasht (1683m) and Do-hezar (117m) from Golestan and Mazandaran province, respectively. Ehanolic extracts were obtained by maceration method and anti bacterial activity were studied by disc diffusion and well methods against some common causing agents of UTI, including Escerichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, S. epidermidis and S. saprophyticus. Results showed that, approximately all three species of Staphylococcus were sensitive and E.coli had moderate sensitivity to plant extract. Although the traditional use of Mentha longifolia has been approved to cure UTIs, but to obtain the best result for treatment of this disease, the habitat of the plant is also important and must be considered.

Glycyrrhiza glabra L. is one of the most important anti-inflammatory herbs in Golestan province, which has been used in traditional medicine of this region as digestive tonic and emollient to treat of many gastrointestinal disorders. In this study the roots of plant were collected from one of grassland in North of Gorgan in January 2014, dried and ethanol extract was obtained by using Maceration method. Total phenol and flavonoids were evaluated by Spectrophotometry and antioxidant activity was obtained by DPPH test, then results was assessed at P<0.05. The results showed that the root extract of plant with total phenol content (32.51 mgGAE / gDW), total flavonoid content (19.53mg QUEg-1) had good antioxidant function against free radical scavenging with (IC50=0.130mg/ml). So these results were confirmed the traditional uses of this plant in Golestan province as a gastric tonic, emollient and anti-inflammation to treat of many current gastrointestinal disorders and we order to may be useful in the production of pharmaceutical products that are effective in the prevention and treatment of cancer and inflammatory diseases.