Cultivation and Comparing Morphological and Phytochemical Characteristics of Seven Population of Tussilago farfara L. in Tehran Climate Conditions

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

• Mohammad Norani ¹
• Mohammadtaghi Ebadi ²
• Mehdi Ayyari Noushabadi ²

¹ Tarbiat Modares University, Iran

² Tarbiat Modares University

https://doi.org/10.22067/jhorts4.v33i3.76027

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 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.

Keywords

• Coltsfoot
• morphological study
• phytochemical studies
• Antioxidant activity
• total flavonoid

20.1001.1.20084730.1398.33.3.7.7

References

Adamcza A., Opala B., Gryszczynska A., and Buchwald W. 2013. Content of pyrrolizidine alkaloids in the leaves of coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara L.) in Poland. Acta Societatis Botanicorum Poloniae 82(4): 289–293.

2- Mozaffarian V. 2015. Recognition of medicinal and aromatic herbs in Iran. Tehran: Farhang Moaser Publishers, 1444 p.

3- Zargari A. 1998. Medicinal Plants. Tehran University Publishers, 3:926.

4- Omidbaigi R. 1393. Production and processing of medicinal plants. Mashhad: Astan Quds Razavi Publishers, 348 p.

5- Wu Q.Z., Zha D.X., Xiang J., Zhang M., Zhang C.F., and Xu X.H. 2015. Antitussive, expectorant, and anti-inflammatory activities of four caffeoylquinic acids isolated from Tussilago farfara. Pharmaceutical Biology 54(7):1117-24.

6- Lebada R., Schreier A., Scherz S., Resch Ch., Krenn L., and Kopp B. 2000. Uantitative Analysis of the Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids Senkirkine and Senecionine in Tussilago farfara L. by Capillary Electrophoresis. Phytochemical Analysis 11: 366–369.

7- Turker A.U., and Usta C. 2008. Biological screening of some Turkish medicinal plant extracts for antimicrobial and toxicity activities. Natural Product Research 22(2): 136-146.

8- Dobravalskyte D., Talou T., and Venskutonis R. 2011. Activity of natural antioxinants extracted from greater calamint, sweet cicely and coltsfoot cultivated in Lithoania and in France. In Conference Proceedings of the 6th Baltic Conference on Food Science and Technology FOODBALT-2011, Jelgava, Latvia, 5-6 May, 2011. Innovations for food science and production. (pp. 73-78). Latvia University of Agriculture, Faculty of Food Technology.

9- Sharafzadeh S. 2011. Pyrethrum, Coltsfoot and Dandelion: Important Medicinal Plants from Asteraceae Family. Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences 5(12): 1787-1791.

10- Hleba L., Vukovic N., Horska E., Petrova J., Sukdolak S., and Kacaniova M. 2014. Phenolic profile and antimicrobial activities to selected microorganisms of some wild medical plant from Slovakia. Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Disease 4(4): 269-274.

11- Soobrattee M.A., Neergheen V.S., Luximon-Ramma A., Aruoma O.I., and Bahorun T. 2005. Phenolics as potential antioxidant therapeutic agents: Mechanism and actions. Mutation Research (579): 200–213.

12- Dudai N. 2012. Domestication and Breeding of Wild Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Thirty Years of Experience in Israel I International Symposium on Medicinal, Aromatic and Nutraceutical Plants from Mountainous Areas (MAP-Mountain 2011) 955. 2011.‏

13- Chorly S., Khorasani Nejad S., Hemmati Khodayar., and Kashefi B. 2015. Evaluation of morphological, antioxidant and essential oil content of Stachys lavandulifolia Vahl. In habitats of Semnan, North Khorasan and Razavi provinces. Journal of Plant Environmental Physiology 41: 52-41.

14- Salamati M., and Yousefi M. 2010. Evaluation of yield diversity and morphological traits of some genotypes (Dracocephalum moldavica L.). Journal of Plant Research 27(1).

15- Tuncturk M., and Vahdettin C. 2004. Relationships among traits using correlation and pach coefficient analysis in safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) sown different fertilization levels and row spacing. Asian Journal Plant Sci, 3(6): 683-686.

16- Pir Khezri M., Hasani M., and Fakhr Tabatabai M. 2009. Morphological Evaluation of Some Chamomile Species in Two Genuses of Antimesis and Matricaria in Iran (Anthemis spp., Matricaria spp.). Journal of Horticulture (Agricultural Science and Technology) 23: 130-119.

17- Andrea L. 2002. Variation of Morphology, Yield and Essential Oil Components in Common Chamomile (Chamomilla recutita (L.) Rauschert) Cultivars Grown in Southern Italy. Journal of Herbs, Spices and Medicinal Plants 9(4): 359-365.

18- Bozin B., Mimica-Dukic N., Samojlik L., and Jovin E.J. Agric. 2007. Food Chem., 2007, 55, 7879.

19- Slinkard K., and Singleton V.L. Amer. 1977. J. Enology Viticulture, 1977, 28, 49.

20- Smith R.J., Winder M.L. Medicinal garden. 1996. The National Herb Garden Guidebook, pp. 61–71.

21- Ordonez A.A.L., Gomez J.D., and Vattuone M.A. 2006. Antioxidant activities of Sechium edule (Jacq.) Swartz extracts. Food Chemistry 97(3): 452-458.‏

22- Osmani J., and Siosemarde A .2009. Genetic variation of Sardari wheat ecotypes using AFLP marker and agronomic traits. Journal of Agricultural Science and Technology of Natural Resources 13: No. 47.

23- Mehdikhani H., Soleuki M, and Zeynli H. 2013. Study of the genetic diversity of some chamomile masses (Matricaria inodora L.) using morphological traits and molecular markers of RAPD. Genetic and Reforestation Research Institute of Iran 21: 256-242.

24- Mohammadi R., Dehghani H., and Zeynli H. 2014. Study of Genetic Variability of Different Masses of German Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla L.) Using Morphological and Phenological Traits. Journal of Research and Development, No. 105.

25- Adeli N., Alizadeh MA., Mohammadi A., and Jafari A. 2013. Evaluation of morphological, phenological and essential oil characteristics of some populations of Anthemis haussknechtii. Research and Engineering, No. 106.

26- Ahmadi A., and Siosemarde A. 2003. Effect of drought stress on soluble carbohydrates, chlorophyll and proline in four wheat cultivars compatible with different climatic conditions of Iran. Journal of Iranian Agricultural Science 35: 763-753.

27- Khatir Nameni M., and Mazandarani M. 2011. Of total flavonoids and phenolic different organs of medicinal plant Deadly nights hade (Atropa belladonna L.) in the jungle province Tvskstan. National Conference on Medicinal Plants 2: 2-7.

28- Zovko Koncic M., Kremer D., and Karlovic K. 2010. Evaluation of antioxidant activities and phenolic content of Berberis vulgaris L. and Berberis croatica Horvat. Food and Chemical Toxicology (48): 2176-21.

29- Mehpour M., Kashefi B., and Moghadam M. 2015. Study of phytochemical and antioxidant compounds of various organs of Ferula assafoetida L. in two natural habitats of Semnan and Khorasan provinces. Journal of Ecophytochemistry of Medicinal Plants 13(1): 58-68.

30- Dobravalskyte D., Venskutonis P.R., Talou T., Zebib B., Merah O., and Ragazinskiene O. 2013. Antioxidant Properties and Composition of Deodorized Extracts of Tussilago farfara L. Records of Natural Products 7.3: 201.‏

31- Jamshidi M., Ashtiani H., Rezazadeh R., Fathi Azad., F Mazandarani., and Khaki A. 2009. Investigation and comparison of phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity of some native plants of Mazandaran. Journal of Medicinal Plants 9(34): 178-182.

32- Yesil-Celiktas O., Girgin G., Orhan H., Wichers H. J., Bedir E., and Vardar-Sukan F. 2007. Screening of free radical scavenging capacity and antioxidant activities of Rosmarinus officinalis extracts with focus on location and harvesting time. Eur Food Res Technology 224: 443–451.