Medicinal Plants
Faeze Rezvaninia; Sahar Zamani; Mohammad-Taghi Ebadi
Abstract
AbstractIntroductionThe increasing use of medicinal, aromatic plants and spices has increased the economic production, value and trade of these plants. Ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe.) is a perennial rhizome plant which is considered as the most important spice in the global trade. Ginger rhizome ...
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AbstractIntroductionThe increasing use of medicinal, aromatic plants and spices has increased the economic production, value and trade of these plants. Ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe.) is a perennial rhizome plant which is considered as the most important spice in the global trade. Ginger rhizome has bioactive compounds such as phenolic compounds and essential oil. Essential oil (including zingiberene, α and β-pinene, camphene etc.) is responsible for the aroma of ginger. Important phenolic compounds of ginger include Gingerol, Shogaol, Paradol, and Zingerone, which are responsible for the spicy taste of ginger. Ginger has important effects such as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antimicrobial, antilipemic, anti-obesity, anti-diabetes, anti-nausea, and liver protective activities, improving digestive problems, etc. In addition to medicine, ginger rhizome is widely used as a spice and flavoring in foods, drinks, etc., and is also defined as a dietary supplement by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). In this study, while examining and analyzing the world market of this valuable spice, Iran's production potentials were examined to supply internal needs and enter to the export section.Material and Method In this research, the data on the production and trade of ginger was evaluated using the codes determined in the Harmonized System (HS codes 091010, 091011 and 091012). The area harvest, production amount, yield and the top producing countries were extracted from the statistics section of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The export and import trade data of ginger in Iran and the world, the top exporting and importing countries during 2010-2022 years were evaluated using the World Trade Center data.Results and Discussion According to the obtained assessments, the total production of ginger in the world has increased from 1.718.571 tons in 2010 with an increase of 183% to 4.874.216 tons in 2022, and India, Nigeria, China, Nepal, and Indonesia are among the main ginger producer countries in the world during these years. Also, the investigation of the global trade of ginger showed that the export of this product increased from about 655.9 million dollars in 2010 with a growth of 37% to 900.5 million dollars in 2022, and the import value also increased by 97%, from 568.7 million dollars in 2010 to 1.125 billion dollars, which indicates an increase in the global trade of this product. China, Netherlands, India, Peru, and Thailand were the top exporters while America, Japan, Netherlands, Germany, and Pakistan as the top importers of ginger. The analysis of Iran statistics showed that the total export value of ginger was 15.000 dollars in 2022, while the amount of import reached 36.6 million dollars from 1.35 million dollars in 2010, which shows an increase of 4.7 folds the import volume of this product. Iraq and Azerbaijan were the destinations of ginger exported from Iran, and the origins of ginger imported to Iran were China, United Arab Emirates, and India. In Iran, Tehran province was the only ginger-producer province in the country, which produced 23 tons of ginger with 0.3 ha of area in greenhouse conditions. Price fluctuations of ginger produced in countries such as the USA, China, Brazil and Peru and offered in the USA market in 2022 were investigated. The price of ginger varies throughout the year due to factors such as supply, demand, weather conditions and market dynamics. The highest ginger price ($9.19) was recorded for American ginger in the USA market from August 19 to September 14, and it still had a high price in the cold season. As mentioned, ginger is one of the most important spices in global trade and has a high value in global export and import. In Iran, production less than the internal demand has caused a significant increase in imports compared to exports. Therefore, according to the evaluation and success of the cultivation of similar products in the country, the existence of wide areas harvested and favorable weather conditions, especially in provinces such as Sistan & Baluchestan, and Hormozgan, it is suggested to pay attention to the cultivation of ginger to supply internal markets and achieve extensive exports. Also, according to the area under greenhouses cultivation, which is 24,000 hectares, taking into account the average production of 10 tons of ginger per hectare, if only 10% of the existing greenhouse cultivation is dedicated to ginger production, it is possible to produce 24,000 tons of fresh ginger, which will fully meet domestic needs and provide the export.
Ali Hasani; Mohammad Hadi Khosh Taghaza; Mohammadtaghi Ebadi
Abstract
Introduction: Drying of medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs) is a widely spread method offering physico-chemical stabilization by taking away part of the moisture content, producing different products with different qualitative properties and economical value. The main purpose of MAPs drying is ...
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Introduction: Drying of medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs) is a widely spread method offering physico-chemical stabilization by taking away part of the moisture content, producing different products with different qualitative properties and economical value. The main purpose of MAPs drying is to extend product shelf life, minimize packaging requirements and reduce shipping weights. Drying is used to stop the growth of microorganisms and preserve the quality of MAPs. There are different drying methods and their suitability can be determined by energy efficiency, drying time, preservation of active substances and other quality properties of the product, depending on market demand. Therefore, determining a suitable drying method to achieve higher active substances in medicinal plants is very important. Advantages of infrared drying include high efficiency of conversion of electrical energy into heat, a suitable alternative source for thermal energy, and uniform heating of the product surface. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of infrared drying on drying time and the qualitative characteristics of sumac fruit (total color changes, total phenolic content, organic acids, and vitamin C). Material and Methods: Sumac fruits (from the forests of Sardasht city in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran) were used after complete separation from clusters and additional parts for drying and performing the desired treatments. In this research, an infrared dryer was used to dry the sumac sample which was made by the Department of Biosystems Engineering of Tarbiat Modares University. For this study, a factorial experiment was performed based on a completely randomized design. In this experiments, three levels of radiation intensity (0.2, 0.3 and 0.5 watts per square centimeter) and three levels of air velocity (0.5, 1 and 1.5 meters per second) were used. The sample tray inside the dryer was connected by a rod to a digital scale at the bottom of the dryer. The scale had a computer connection port that could measure and record the weight of the fruits continuously during drying. To determine the initial moisture content, 3 samples (50 g) were placed in an oven at 105 °C and after three hours, the samples were taken out of the oven and weighed, and finally the moisture content of the product was calculated on wet basis. The initial moisture content of sumac fruits was approximately 17%. Drying was continued until the product reached a moisture content of 7%. Drying time and quality characteristics of sumac fruit (color changes, total phenolic content, organic acids, and vitamin C) were measured. Colorimeter (Hunterlab, Color Flex model, USA) was used to check the color changes of sumac fruits during drying and the total color changes ( ) compared to the fresh sample were calculated. To measure the total phenolic content, Folin-Ciocalteu phenol reagent was used by a spectrophotometer (Samsung, Smart Spec Flus model, South Korea). Titration method was used to measure vitamin C and organic acids. Finally, based on all the mentioned parameters, the optimization was performed by Design Expert software (version 10) and the best score was obtained based on the utility index. Results and Discussion: The results showed that the intensity of infrared radiation and air velocity had a significant effect on the studied characteristics except total phenolic content. The minimum and maximum drying times were obtained at the highest and lowest infrared intensities and air velocities, respectively. Increasing the infrared intensity and subsequently increasing the temperature had a negative effect on the total color changes, organic acids and vitamin C, so that the least total color changes and the highest amount of organic acids and vitamin C were obtained by reducing the intensity of infrared radiation. The lowest total color change and the highest amount of organic acids were obtained in the treatment of 0.2 W cm-2 × 1.5 m s-1 and the highest amount of vitamin C in 0.2 W cm-2 × 1 m s-1 and 0.3 W cm-2 × 0.5 m s-1 treatments, respectively. The values obtained from the optimization parameters for the studied indicators (drying time, total color changes, organic acids, and vitamin C) showed that the best point for drying of sumac fruit was the infrared radiation intensity of 0.3 W cm-2 and air velocity of 0.5 m s-1. In this treatment, the highest utility index obtained by software was 0.71. Conclusion: Infrared drying reduced the drying time of sumac fruit compared to traditional drying methods (shade and sun drying). In addition to reducing the drying time, infrared drying was a suitable method for preserving the phytochemical properties and color changes of sumac fruits.
Ali Rezaei; Mohammadtaghi Ebadi; Hassan Pirani
Abstract
Introduction: Organic production is one of the important aspects in the medicinal plants industry and the use of organic fertilizers is very important in this topic. Seaweeds are important marine living resources with tremendous commercial applications and many commercial products from seaweed extract ...
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Introduction: Organic production is one of the important aspects in the medicinal plants industry and the use of organic fertilizers is very important in this topic. Seaweeds are important marine living resources with tremendous commercial applications and many commercial products from seaweed extract are used in agriculture and horticulture. Seaweed extracts can be used in liquid form as a foliar spray, soil drench or in powder and granular forms as soil conditioners and manure. Using seaweed extracts as fertilizers can improve plant productivity, because they contain growth-promoting hormones. Several studies have also shown that the seaweed extracts can suppress plant diseases and insect pests. Nowadays, seaweed extract is used as an organic fertilizer in order to increase the quantitative yield of medicinal plants and also resistance to environmental stresses. Summer savory is one of the medicinal and spice plants that has a high area under cultivation in our country for food and medicine. Various studies on its essential oil had been shown that it contains high amounts of phenolic compounds like Carvacrol, γ-Terpinene, Thymol, p-Cymene, β-Caryophyllene, Linalool, and other terpenoids.
Materials and Methods: In order to study the effect of different levels of seaweed fertilizer on the growth characteristics, plant material yield, essential oil percentage of summer savory, an experiment was conducted as a randomized complete block design with 3 replications at the Faculty of Agriculture, Tarbiat Modares University (TMU) during 2017. The treatments included: 0 (control), 2.5, 5 and 10 ml/liter seaweed fertilizer that they were used as a foliar application for three times in the growing season. According to the meteorological data, the area had an average rainfall of 246 mm and a semi-arid climate. In order to determine the physical and chemical properties of the soil, soil sampling and testing were done. To prepare the field, the soil tillage operation was carried out using a 40 cm depth plow. Then, plots with a 2 × 2 meters at a distance of half a meter from each other were prepared. The seeds used in this experiment were prepared from Varamin landrace, which is mainly cultivated by farmers in Tehran and Alborz provinces. Sowing operation was carried out manually. In each plot, 7 rows (30 cm spacing between rows) were cultivated and all of the plots were irrigated in the same conditions. The organic fertilizer (Bioalgax) used in this experiment was based on an extract of seaweed (Ascophyllum nodosum), which was obtained from the Kimitec company, Spain. This fertilizer is a natural source of phytohormones such as cytokinins, auxins, and gibberellins and also, it has some minerals. After reaching the height of 20 cm (eight weeks after planting), spraying of the fertilizer solutions was applied three times during the growing season at intervals of 10 days. The foliar application was carried out at sunset time by using a manual sprayer. The harvest was carried out at full flowering stage and 3 plants of each plot were harvested. The studied traits were: plant height, stem diameter, the number of branches, leaf length, and width, shoot fresh and dry weight, root fresh and dry weight, SPAD index, essential oil yield and content.
Results and Discussion: The results showed that different concentrations of seaweed fertilizer had a significant effect on the number of branches, shoot dry weight, root fresh and dry weight, leaf width and plant height at 1% probability level. They also had a significant effect on the shoot fresh weight, essential oil percentage, and yield at 5% probability level. On the basis of the results, the highest number of branches (35.44), leaf length and width (43.22 and 8.07 mm), stem diameter (5.00 mm), root fresh and dry weight (15.17 and 6.42 g), shoot fresh and dry weight (181.01 and 37.69 g) and SPAD index (48.13) were obtained from 10 ml/liter seaweed fertilizer and the lowest amounts were observed in control treatment. The maximum plant height (54.66 cm) and the highest percentages and the yield of essential oil (2.51% and 6.28 g/m2) were also obtained from 5 ml/liter seaweed fertilizer. According to the results, the response of summer savory to the use of seaweed fertilizer was positive and it could be placed in the fertilization program of farmers.
Mohammad Norani; Mohammadtaghi Ebadi; Mehdi Ayyari Noushabadi
Abstract
Introduction: Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara L.) from Asteraceae family is a perennial plant. T. farfara is native and widespread from Europe to Western and Northern Asia and North Africa. Coltsfoot distributed in wet mountainous regions of Iran, such as Azerbaijan, Tehran and Northern provinces. Its flowers ...
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Introduction: Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara L.) from Asteraceae family is a perennial plant. T. farfara is native and widespread from Europe to Western and Northern Asia and North Africa. Coltsfoot distributed in wet mountainous regions of Iran, such as Azerbaijan, Tehran and Northern provinces. Its flowers and leaves have been used traditionally for the treatment of cough, bronchitis and phlegm disorders. T. farfara leaves and flowers have expectorant activity and are used for chronic dry cough and various pulmonary diseases. The extracts of T. farfara were shown to exhibit various activities, such as antioxidant and antimicrobial activity. Biologically active agents of T. farfara have been studied due to their antimicrobial and antioxidant characteristics.
Materials and Methods: For morphological study, the rhizomes of seven Iranian coltsfoot populations were collected in August 2016 from different regions of Iran including Pol-e zangholeh, Damavand, Firoozkooh, Nur, Deylaman, Kaleybar and Namin. The collected samples were planted in the same condition during 2016-2017 in research field of Tarbiat Modares University in Tehran (51º10ʹ23ʺ N, 35º44ʹ17ʺ E), with a randomized complete block design experiment and three replications. The average annual rainfall and temperature of cultivating place is about 220 mm and 16.4 ºC. In order to study the morphological characteristics between different samples, traits such as the number of flowers per plant, stem height, flower length, flower diameter, flower dry weight, root length, root dry weight, leaf area and leaf dry weight had been measured. Morphological traits were measured under the same conditions and for this research, were used ruler, caliper and balance. The leaves and flowers were prepared for phytochemical studies. DPPH method has been used to evaluate the antioxidant activity, and the IC50 was used to compare the antioxidant properties. The absorbance of the samples was measured at 517 nm with ELISA reader. The radical scavenging capacity (RSC) was calculated by the following formula: % In=[(Ab-As)/Ab]×100, where In is DPPH inhibition, Ab is the absorbance of the blank, As is the absorbance of samples including extracts and BHT as a positive control. The phenolic contents of different extracts were determined by Folin-Ciocalteu method and the aluminum chloride method was used to measure total flavonoid.
Results and Discussion: Analysis of variance showed that there is a significant difference between all evaluated traits in studied populations (p ≤0.01). Pol-e zangholeh population of T. farfara, has shown the best performance for all morphological traits. The results of the flowers per plant showed that the Pol-e zangholeh population was the highest and the Deylaman population had the lowest number of flowers. The maximum length of the stem was related to the Pol-e zangholeh population while the population of Namin had the smallest amount. Comparison of flower diameter showed that the Pol-e zangholeh population had the largest diameter and Nur population of all the smaller. The results of the flower length showed that the maximum flower length was related to the Pol-e zangholeh population and Deylaman population had the smallest amount of flower length. Comparison of mean of flower dry weight showed that the Pol-e zangholeh population of T. farfara had the highest value while the population of Nur had the smallest amount. Pol-e zangholeh population of T. farfara, considered as superior populations and its flowering time were earlier than the others. It was found that there is a significant difference (p ≤0.01) between different populations. This variation may be due to Population differences of People, either due to differences in environmental conditions or sometimes due to the interaction of the population and the environment. Our results also indicate the presence of comparable genetic potentials of T. farfara in these population for any further cultivar development. Analysis variance showed that there was significant difference between populations for total phenol, flavonoid and antioxidant activity (p ≤0.01) and the Nur population had the highest total phenolic content and highest antioxidant activity. Comparison of antioxidant activity of different extracts from leaves and flowers of T. farfara showed that the most antioxidant activity was related to leaf extract of Nur population with IC50 271 µg/ml closer to BHT (33 µg/ml) as a synthetic and industrial antioxidant. The least amount of this activity was related to Kaleybar leaf extract with IC50 888 µg/ml. Nur population showed the highest total phenol content with 242 mg GAE/g dried weight. Damavand population showed the highest total flavonoid content with 40 mg QE/g DW extract.
Conclusion: Our results indicate the presence of comparable potentials of T. farfara in these populations for any further cultivar development. Study of antioxidant activity in different habitats shows that Nur habitat is a suitable place for the cultivation of T. farfara to increase the amount of phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity.
Mohammadtaghi Ebadi; Majid Azizi; Fatemeh Sefidkon; Noorollah Ahmadi
Abstract
Introduction: Organic fertilizers with beneficial effects on soil structure and nutrient availability help maintain yield and quality, and they are less costly than synthetic fertilizers. Vermicompost and vermiwash are two organic fertilizers that they contain a biologically active mixture of bacteria, ...
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Introduction: Organic fertilizers with beneficial effects on soil structure and nutrient availability help maintain yield and quality, and they are less costly than synthetic fertilizers. Vermicompost and vermiwash are two organic fertilizers that they contain a biologically active mixture of bacteria, enzymes and phytohormones, also these organic fertilizers can supply the nutritional needs of plants. Lemon verbena (Lippia citriodora Kunth, Verbenaceae) is an evergreen perennial aromatic plant. The lemon-scented essential oil from the lemon verbena has been widely used for its digestive, relaxing, antimalarial and lemony flavor properties. In order to decrease the use of chemical fertilizers for reduction of environmental pollution, this research was undertaken to determine effects of vermicompost and vermiwash in comparison with chemical fertilizer on leaf yield, essential oil content and composition of lemon verbena.
Materials and Methods: A pot experiment based on a completely randomized design with six treatments and three replications on Lemon verbena was carried out in the experimental greenhouse of the Department of Horticulture Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, 2012. Treatments consisted of 10, 20 and 30 % by volume of vermicompost and vermiwash (with an addition to irrigation in three steps, including: two weeks after the establishment of plants in pots, the appearing of branches and three weeks before harvest), complete fertilizer and control without any fertilizer. Each replication contained six pots and each pot contained one plant of Lemon verbena provided from Institute of Medicinal Plants, Karaj, therefore 108 pots were used in this experiment. The pots were filled up by a mixture contained 3/5 soil and 2/5 sand (v/v). After three months, plant aerial parts were harvested concomitantly at starting of the flowering stage. Aerial parts were dried at room temperature for 72 hours and dry weights of dried branches and leaves were measured. For isolation of essential oils, about 20 g of dried leaves (three replications of each treatment) was subjected to hydro-distillation for 2 h with a Clevenger apparatus. The extracted essential oils were dried over anhydrous sodium sulphate and then they analyzed by GC and GC/MS. The data were subjected to analysis of variance using SAS software and means compared with Duncan's multiple range test.
Results and Discussion: The results showed that differences between treated plants with organic fertilizers were not significant for aerial part yield, but leaf yield and essential oil content were affected by fertilizer type (p
Mohammadtaghi Ebadi; Majid Azizi; Reza Omidbaigi; Mohammad Hasanzadeh Khayat
Abstract
Abstract
In order to study the effect of sowing date and seeding rate on essential oil content and composition of chamomile (Matricaria recutita L.) CV. Presov, prepared from Slovakia, an experiment was conducted. The experimental design was split-plot in the basic of randomized complete blocked design ...
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Abstract
In order to study the effect of sowing date and seeding rate on essential oil content and composition of chamomile (Matricaria recutita L.) CV. Presov, prepared from Slovakia, an experiment was conducted. The experimental design was split-plot in the basic of randomized complete blocked design (RCBD) with three replications. Main plots consisted of three sowing dates (6 Nov, 5 Mar, and 4 Apr) and sub-plots included three seeding levels (0.2, 0.4 and 0.8 g/m2). Evaluated traits were essential oil content and percent of -farnesene, -bisabolol oxide B, -bisabolol, chamazulene, -bisabolol oxide A. The results showed that spring sowing (Mar and Apr) produced chamomile with high level of essential oil content. On the basis of the results, the highest essential oil content (0.63 w/w percent) was obtained from the plots were sown on 5 of Mar with 0.4 g/m2 but the highest -bisabolol and chamazulene content (75.99 and 17.31 percent respectively) were obtained from the plots were sown on 4 of Apr with 0.2 and 0.4 g/m2. According to the results, because of high percent of essential oil and desirable content of -bisabolol and chamazulene, the most suitable sowing date and seeding level in Mashhad condition is 5 of Mar with 0.4 g/m2 seeds respectively.
Keywords: German chamomile, Sowing date, Seeding rate, Essential oil content and composition
Mitra Rahmati; Majid Azizi; Mohammadtaghi Ebadi; Mohammad Hasanzadeh Khayat
Abstract
چکیده
به منظور بررسی تأثیر روش های مختلف خشک کردن بر مدت زمان لازم برای خشک کردن و سرعت کاهش وزن، میزان اسانس و درصد کامازولن گل های بابونه ( Matricaria recutita (L.) Rauschert) اصلاح ...
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چکیده
به منظور بررسی تأثیر روش های مختلف خشک کردن بر مدت زمان لازم برای خشک کردن و سرعت کاهش وزن، میزان اسانس و درصد کامازولن گل های بابونه ( Matricaria recutita (L.) Rauschert) اصلاح شده رقم دیپلوئید جرمانیا، آزمایشی در سال زراعی 87-1386 در مزرعه و آزمایشگاه تحقیقاتی دانشکده کشاورزی دانشگاه فردوسی مشهد به صورت طرح بلوک های کامل تصادفی با سه تکرار اجرا شد. شش توان مختلف میکروویو شامل 100، 180، 300، 450، 600 و 900 وات، سه دمای مختلف آون شامل 50، 60 و 70 درجه سانتیگراد و روش طبیعی (سایه و آفتاب) در این آزمایش مورد مطالعه و مقایسه قرار گرفتند. در روش های مختلف، خشک کردن نمونه ها تا زمانی که وزن آنها به محتوای رطوبتی 10/0 بر پایه وزن خشک (یا 10 درصد بر پایه وزن تر) رسید، ادامه داشت. نتایج حاصل نشان داد که بین روش های مختلف خشک کردن و مدت زمان لازم برای خشک کردن، میزان اسانس و درصد کامازولن گیاه بابونه رابطه معنی داری وجود دارد. کمترین زمان خشک کردن (7 تا 104 دقیقه با توجه به توان مورد نظر) در روش میکروویو و بیشترین آن (120 ساعت) در روش سایه حاصل شد. بالاترین درصد اسانس (72/0 درصد وزنی) در روش سایه به دست آمد و کمترین آن مربوط به خشک کردن در میکروویو و دمای بالای آون بود. بالاترین درصد کامازولن در روش طبیعی و میکروویو و کمترین درصد آن به وسیله خشک کردن در آون به دست آمد.
واژههای کلیدی: آفتاب، آون، بابونه، خشک کردن، سایه، کامازولن، میکروویو
