Phytochemical profile of Arnica montana L. root and rhizome samples from several wild populations in the Romanian Eastern Carpathians

Few studies on phytochemicals of A. montana root and rhizome collected from natural habitats has been performed. Previous studies on phenolic acids in A. montana was done on root samples [1], whereas for the volatile oils studies were performed separately on roots and rhizomes samples [2 – 4]. This study aimed to evaluate the biosynthetic potential of underground parts of A. montana for phenolic acids and volatile oils. These data may be used in order to develop cultivars by vegetative propagation using plant material with known phytochemical characteristics and the capitalization of the whole plant as source of various bioactive compounds with multiple uses. The plant material (root and rhizome average sample) was collected from 11 wild populations in the Romanian East-Carpathians in autumn of 2014 and 2015. To avoid the endangerment of the wild populations low amounts of samples were collected, thus for the analysis of volatile oils we also used a mixture of samples. For the isolation of phenolic compounds the dried plant material was extracted with a mixture of methanol/acetone/water and the phytochemical analysis was performed by HPLC analysis. The volatile oil was obtained from dried and powered plant material by hydrodistillation, for 2 hours in a Clevenger apparatus and the qualitative analysis was performed by GC-MS. The total content of phenolic acids varied between 21.59 – 34.09 mg/g d.w., cynarine being identified as the major compound (7.12 – 11.25 mg/g d.w.). The yields for the volatile oils ranged between 2.18 – 3.24%, no significant variation was observed depending on the year of harvest. In all volatile oils, a total of 35 compounds were identified and quantified (95% of the total oil). The major constituents were thymyl methyl ether (5.3 – 6.1%), 3-t-butyl-1,2-dimethoxybenzene (59.8 – 70.5%), 1-isopropyl-5-methylbicyclo[3.2.2] non-3-en-2-one (7.4 – 8.2%), 5,14-Dioxapentacyclo[7.5.0.0(2,6). 0(3,13).0(4,10)]tetradecane (7.1 – 9.8%), thymol (7.5 – 9.9%).

Acknowledgements: The work was conducted within the Program Partnership in Priority Area – PNII supported by MEN-UEFISCDI, Project No. 74/2014.

Keywords: root and rhizome, phenolic acids, volatile oils, GC-MS, HPLC.

References:

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