Medicinal Plants
Mahtab Salehi; Ramezan Kalvandi; Foroozan Salehi
Abstract
IntroductionThe medicinal plants have been used in traditional medicine for a long time all over the world. Over 80% of the world population depends on herbal medicines and products for healthy living, and also, a large part of pharmaceutical materials are derived directly or indirectly from plant sources. ...
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IntroductionThe medicinal plants have been used in traditional medicine for a long time all over the world. Over 80% of the world population depends on herbal medicines and products for healthy living, and also, a large part of pharmaceutical materials are derived directly or indirectly from plant sources. According to the new approach to the use of medicines and herbal products, the investigation of the medicinal properties of endemic plants in each region, is of particular importance. Morphological and phytochemical traits of medicinal plants are affected by the different environmental conditions as well as genetic variations. Therefore, investigating the changes in morphological and phytochemical traits of different populations of these plants in various regions and identifying the amount and constituents of their essential oils, can be effective for creating a suitable field for their planting or breeding, as well as standardizing their derived medicine products. The Achillea genus, a medicinal plant belonging to the Asteraceae family, is highly diverse in terms of morphological characteristics and essential oil constituents. 19 species of herbaceous and aromatic plants of this genus have been identified in Iran, of which 7 species are endemic. Some of the Achillea species have therapeutic properties such as reducing blood pressure and lipids, sedative, antispasmodic, analgesic, wounds treatment, antiseptic properties, treatment of stomach pain and diarrhea, stopping bleeding, etc. Materials and MethodsThis study was conducted in May 2022 in order to evaluate the diversity of morphological traits and essential oil constituents of A. santolinoides subsp. wilhelmsii (K. Koch) Greuter populations in 11 regions of Hamedan province. The plant samples were collected in the flowering stage and after measuring some morphological traits (plant height, number of flowering stem, stem diameter, inflorescence diameter, fresh and dry weight of plant, number of inflorescence, number of leaf, etc.), they were dried in shade condition. In order to investigate the physical and chemical properties of soil, soil samples were collected from a depth of 30 cm. and were transferred to the soil laboratory. The essential oils were extracted using hydro-distillation method which lasted for 4 hours. Then they were analyzed by GC and GC/MS in the Institute of Medicinal Plants in Karaj. Gas chromatography was carried out on Agilent 6890. The grouping of populations based on morphological traits and essential oil constituents, was done by cluster analysis in SPSS using the Ward method. Also, the traits correlation (quantitative) was done using the Pearson method. Results and DiscussionThe results indicated that the Vahnan population exhibited the tallest plant height at 23.20 cm, a significant difference compared to other populations. Conversely, the Nazool population displayed the lowest plant height at 13.60 cm. Regarding stem diameter, the Yalfan population showed the greatest diameter at 2.50 mm, a measure not significantly different from the populations of Islamabad, Nazool, and Varayeneh. In contrast, the Koohani population had the smallest stem diameter at 1.52 mm. The highest inflorescence diameter (4.30 cm) belonged to the Islamabad population, which statistically had no significant difference with the populations of Koohani, Vahnan and Yekan Abad, and the lowest (2.30 cm) was observed in Joorab population. The Vahnan population had the highest number of inflorescence (6.20), which statistically had no significant difference with Islam Abad, Zanganeh, Koohani, Yekan Abad and Nazool populations, and the lowest was related to the Yalfan population (3.40). The maximum leaf length was related to Varayeneh population (3 cm), which was statistically not significantly different from Yalfan, Islam Abad and Vahnan populations, and the lowest was related to Naseh Abad population (1.70 cm). Varayeneh and Yekan Abad populations respectively had the largest leaf width (4 mm and 3.80 mm) and the lowest leaf width (2 mm) was observed in the Joorab population. The highest number of flowering stems (13.80) and the maximum number of leaves (168) were belonged to Nazool population, and the lowest number of flowering stems (3.80) was related to Naseh Abad population and the lowest number of leaves (61) was related to Koohani population. Regarding the fresh and dry weight of the plant, the highest values of these traits (3.92 and 2.24 gr, respectively) was related to the Yalfan population and the lowest (1.60 and 0.79 gr, respectively) was related to the Naseh Abad population. Analysis of the essential oils chemical compositions using GC-MS, showed 28 compounds. Camphor, Fragranol, a-pinene, 1,8-cineole and Sabinene were the main constituents of the essential oil. The essential oils yield varied from 0.3 to 0.6% which the highest was related to Varayenh and Nazool populations (0.6%) and the lowest belonged to Heydareh Bala Shahr population (0.3%). Also, Islam Abad population (with the highest altitude), had the highest percentage of fragranol (43.29%). This indicates that environmental factors similar to genetic factors are effective in creating diversity in morphological and phytochemical characteristics of this plant. ConclusionIdentifying the compounds in the Iranian native plants, can provide a suitable field for the practical use of its plant resources and may be the basis of breeding programs. The various studies conducted on different species and populations of Achillea genus, have mentioned the valuable use of their extracts and essential oils in various fields such as pharmaceutical industries (in order to standardizing medicinal products), food, health cosmetics, making insecticides, etc. Researchers who have studied the essential oils of different populations of Achillea species in many regions of Iran, have emphasized on the significant difference between type and amount of the essential oil constituents. In this study, compounds such as Camphor, Fragranol, a-pinene, 1,8-cineole and Sabinene were the main components of the populations essential oils. Since fragranol is used in manufacturing the insecticides and pheromones, Islam Abad population can be used in this industry due to having high fragranol (43.29%). Also, due to the high amount of camphor in the essential oils of most of the studied populations and many uses of this compound, it can be used as an important economic resource in the health-cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries to make various creams and ointments.
Seyyed Ali Mousavizadeh
Abstract
Introduction: Information on nature and magnitude of present variability in a population is an important pre-requisite for starting any breeding program. Moreover, the knowledge about correlations among various characters and further partitioning them into direct and indirect effects is a rational approach ...
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Introduction: Information on nature and magnitude of present variability in a population is an important pre-requisite for starting any breeding program. Moreover, the knowledge about correlations among various characters and further partitioning them into direct and indirect effects is a rational approach to understanding such a relationship which is helpful for multiple trait selections. The present study was undertaken to determine the genetic variability and heritability of important economic characters, interrelationships among them and their direct and indirect effect on yield in Iranian onion landraces.
Materials and Methods: Seeds of twenty landraces were planted using a randomized complete block design with three replications in East Azarbayjan Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center for two years. Thirty plants were selected at random in each plot to record the observations on yield/plant, leaf length, number of leaves/plant, bulb length, bulb diameter, number of centers, number of edible layers, bulb dry matter and shape index. Broad-sense heritability, expected genetic advance, genetic variability, correlation coefficient, and path coefficient analysis calculated.
Results and Discussion: Analysis of variance showed significant effects for all studied traits. Therefore, sufficient genetic variability exists among the onion landraces.
The bulb yield per plant had the utmost phenotypic and genotypic coefficients of variation (PCV and GCV) (27.81% and 24.27%, respectively). This shows the prevalence of greater genetic variability among the genotypes which offers good opportunities for crop improvement through selection. Medium PCV and GCV were displayed in bulb diameter, number of leaves/plant, leaf length, number of center and shape index. But number of edible layers and bulb dry matter showed low GCV and PCV indicating less scope of selection as they are under the influence of environment.
The estimates of phenotypic coefficients of variation were higher than their corresponding genotypic coefficients of variation for all the traits. That might be due to interaction of genotype with environment to the same degree or other denoting environmental factors influencing the expression of these traits. A high degree of disparity between PCV and GCV for most of the traits showed their susceptibility to environmental fluctuations.
In present study, the estimates of broad-sense heritability ranged from 16% for number of edible layers to 88% for shape index. Heritability estimates were very high for bulb diameter, leaf length, and number of centers and shape index, indicating the possibility of success in selection. Heritability estimates were relatively high for yield/plant, bulb length and number of leaves/plant. In addition, moderate heritability estimate was observed for bulb dry matter. On the other hand, low heritability estimates was also observed for number of edible layers indicating the limited scope for improvement of this trait through selection.
The expected genetic advance expressed as a percentage of the mean by selecting the top 5% of the accessions, varied between 1.6% for number of edible layers to 43.55% for yield/plant. Genetic advance as percentage of mean was maximum for yield/plant followed by number of centers, shape index, leaf length, bulb diameter, number of leaves/plant and bulb length. Genetic coefficient of variation, heritability, and genetic advance were high in yield/plant. Therefore, yield/plant could be useful basis for selection.
In most traits, the genotypic correlation coefficients were higher than the phenotypic correlation coefficients which indicated the inherent association among various characters independent of environmental influence.
Bulb-yield/plant showed significant positive correlation with leaf length, leaf number, bulb diameter and bulb length at phenotypic and genotypic levels. So, improvement of leaf length, leaf number, and bulb diameter and bulb length traits could improve the capacity of the plants to synthesize and translocate photosynthates to the bulb.
The path analysis showed that bulb diameter has the largest positive direct effect on bulb-yield/plant. The indirect effect of length of leaves on onion yield through bulb diameter was considerable. Accordingly, selection of plants with larger leaf length and bulb diameter could be suitable for breeding onion for higher yield. The presence of negligible residual effect (0.06) indicated that most of the important traits contributing to yield were included in the path analysis.
Conclusions: Results showed that potential of onion landraces with high genetic diversity in selection for development of cultivars with favorable agronomic and market traits is high. The high genetic coefficient of variation, heritability, and genetic advance were found in yield/plant. Therefore, yield/plant could be useful basis of selection. In addition, the path analysis showed that selection of plants with larger leaf length and bulb diameter could be suitable for breeding onion for higher yield.
Alireza Sobhany; Majid Reza Kiani
Abstract
Introduction: Melon is a tropical species that originates from Iran or Africa and Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey, Russia, Saudi Arabia, India and China are the most important centers of genetic diversity of cultivated varieties (1). The original area for cantaloupe and melon is Iran. Dry and warm climate ...
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Introduction: Melon is a tropical species that originates from Iran or Africa and Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey, Russia, Saudi Arabia, India and China are the most important centers of genetic diversity of cultivated varieties (1). The original area for cantaloupe and melon is Iran. Dry and warm climate is the best condition for Melon. This plant needs heat and light for good grows. Cloudy and rainy weather at the time of fruit ripening may affect melon taste and quality(2). According to the FAO statistics in 2012, the total area devoted to melon was 1,339,006 hectares with an average yield of 23.8 tons per hectare and 31,925,787 tons production. The highest production belonged to China (55% of world production). Iran produces about 5.4 percent of world production which is about 1450000 tons from 80,000 hectares (2).
Recently, a great number of studies have studied the correlation between melon yield and its components. The first branch (5), the number of primary branches, the number of fruits per plant and fruit weight per plant (6), length and width of fruit and fruit shape index were the most important melons traits which have been evaluated by other studies (4). Fruit yield has significant positive correlation with the length of the stem, primary branches, the date of the first appearance of female flowers and fruit weight. Studies revealed that there is a negative correlation between the number of fruits per plant and the average fruit weight.
Materials and Methods: This study was conducted in 2008 with 17 landrace seeds collected from different locations of Khorasan provinces included Kashmar, sarakhs, Boshruye, Sabzevar, Dargaz and Bajestan. Experiment was designed based on randomized complete block design with three replications at agricultural Research Station of Khorasan Razavi.
Results and Discussion: The cultivars did not show any different in the time of emergence as all of them emerged 4 to 7 days after the first irrigation. The comparison showed that melon cultivars were significantly different in all traits except of number of stems per plant. Melon cultivars KohsorkhKashmar, Abbasshori, Haji Mashallah and Jafarabadi were similar in yield and showed greater yield than other cultivars. In this experiment, Khatooni with maximum area in khorasan had highest yield in compare with other cultivars. Khatooni yield was 28.72 tons per hectare. The lowest yield belonged to ghanat s Boshrooye (equal to 18.83 tons per hectare), chahPaliz (17.4 tons per hectare) and kharmansarakhs (with 16.94 ton per hectar). Jafarabadi cultivar had the biggest fruits and ghanatboshrooye and bakharmansarakhs had the smallest fruits. The average weight of a melon fruit Jafarabadiwas 3.50 kg in white ghanat Boshruye or bakharman sarakhs was 1.93 kg. kohsorkh kashmar and abbasshory with 3.4 fruits per plant and mahali boshroye and zinabadwith 2 fruits per plant had the highest and lowest number of fruits respectively.
Cluster analysis for all of traits put 17 melon cultivars into four groups, first group consists of a ghasri, zemestani Mashhad, the second group consisted of ghanat Boshrooyeh, Jabbari, mahali sarakhs, Jafarabadi,chah Faliz, mahalli Boshrooyeh, Dargazi, zinabadi, Bakharman sarakhs, the third group were included Abbaspoor and KohsorkhKashmar and finally Haj Masha Allah, khatoni and bandi were placed in fourth.
Cluster Analysis for yield put melon genotypes into 4 groups, first group consisted of dargazi, zinabadi, zemestani mashahd, mahalli boshrooyeh, mahalli sarakhs, ghasri and khaghani with average yield of 24.7 t/ha and the second group consisted of bakharman sarakhs, chah faliz and ghanat boshrooyeh genotypes with average yield of 23.6 t/ha, Jabbari and khatoni put in thrid group with average yield of 29.2 t/ha and the other genotypes put in 4th group with average of 30 t/ha yield.
Cluster Analysis for number of fruits divided melon genotypes to 4 groups, First group with highest number of fruit consisted of dargazi, zinabadi, zemestani mashahd, mahalli boshrooyeh, bakharman sarakhs, chah faliz, ghanat boshrooyeh with average of 2.5 fruits.
Factor analysis showed that traits used in this experiment covered 73 percent of variation in melong genotypes and traits were divided to 4 components the first one consisted of yield, fruit weight, fruit number, fruit length, fruit width, seed weight and dry weight which covered 16 percent of variations. The second component included length of plant with covering 11.7 percent of variation, fruit Hole diameter and fruit width were put in third and fourth component with covering 10 and 7 percent of variation respectively.
