Planta Med 2013; 79 - SL57
DOI: 10.1055/s-0033-1351883

The estimation of factors defining the trace element structure of plants

DS Kruglov 1
  • 1Novosibirsk state medical university, Department of pharmacognosy & botany, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation

Nowadays, the microelement disbalanses are one of the prevalent diseases and the creation of effective herbal medicines for preventive maintenance and treatment of similar pathologies needs using the plants having an appropriate trace element structure. Therefore, the trace element structure must change in a defined range to make similar medicines with needed quality. In this connection the evaluation of factors which define trace element structure is the most important aim of the research. In family Boraginaceae there are a lot plants which can be used for making similar medicines and these plants were chosen as research objects. The concentration of 60 macro- and microelements in herbs of 55 species, 34 genera, 13 tribes and 3 subfamilies of family Boraginaceae from different habitats have been researched. The investigated plants were collected on Eurasia continent and Africa which are characterized by the most various conditions of growing. The amount of trace elements was determined by means of mass spectroscopy with inductively coupled plasma. The analysis of received experimental data was done by earlier created way based on using a multiple-factor analysis such as the cluster analysis. As a result the hierarchical tree was built and the good correlation between the place of plant in built hierarchical tree and its taxonomical position was shown. The biggest influence on trace element structure of plants renders evolutionary age and phylogenetic connections. Thus we speak about the existence of genetic determined element homeostasis in plants.

Summarising the given results, it is possible to draw the following conclusions:

  • The element status of a plant is defined by its genome and correlates with the taxonomical position of plant well.

  • The element structure depends on growth conditions more than on element structure of soils

  • The element status of a plant has homeostasis property that allows to use plants for prevention of element disbalances.