m. ayyari

Dorema ammoniacum D. Don. is a perennial medicinal plant from Apiaceae family. There is some evidence in Iranian traditional medicine about the anticonvulsant and anthelmintic properties of D. ammoniacum gum resin exudating from its root and stem. In this study, D. ammoniacum was collected from southwestern part of Iran and their Essential Oils (EOs) content and compositions were investigated by gas chromatography techniques. The EO yield of D. ammoniacum root, stem, leaves, flower and gum were 0.4, 0.2, 0.24, 0.46, and 1.0 v/w%, respectively. Although there were some variations among different organs EOs, some similarities could be easily observed. The major compounds in the gum EO were (2E, 6E)-farnesol (12.2%), cuparene (11.5%), (2Z,6Z)-farnesol (8.7%), β-bisabolene (6.1%). The root oil had thymol (14.7%), heptacosane (12.8%), tridecanol (12.7%) and 4-methylene-5-hexenal (6.8 %) as the major compounds. Endo-Fenchyl acetate (13.1%), elemicin (10.5%), p-cymen-8-ol (6.8%) and thymol (5.6%) were identified in the stem oil. The major constituents of the leaves oil were n-hexadecanol (9.1%), cuparene (8.2%), Di-n-butyl phthalate (6.6%), n-eicosane (6.6%), bicyclogermacrene (5.4%) and β-bisabolene (5.2%). The major compounds in flower oil were tridecanol (13.2%), δ-elemene (11.2%), n-eicosane (8.2%), and heptadecanoic acid (7.8%). According to different applications, nine different extracts were also prepared from all organs and their Antioxidant Activity (AA), Total Phenol Content (TPC) and Total Flavonoid Content (TFC) were evaluated. Analysis of variance showed that there was a significant difference among all extracts of D. ammoniacum in AA, TPC and TFC (P≤ 0.01). Results showed that the highest radical scavenging activity was observed in M2F (second Methanolic extract of Flower) and M2L (second Methanolic extract of Leaves) samples with IC50 of 40.3 μg mL-1 and 43.6 μg mL-1 compared to BHT (26.0 μg mL-1). The highest TPC in M2F and M2R (second Methanolic extract of Root) samples were 36.4 and 35.7 mg GAE g-1 DW of extracts, respectively. The highest TFC belonged to M2L with 26.4 mg QE g-1 DW of extract. Results also showed that D. ammoniacum organs extracts contained moderate to high amounts of AA and TPC.

To evaluate the effect of infrared drying on color parameters, essential oil content and composition of German chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla L.), three different infrared intensities (125, 132, and 220 W) with three airflow velocities (0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 m.s-1) on a total of nine treatments were examined in a completely randomized design, and the shade-dried plants were considered as a control treatment. The results indicated that the treatments had significant effects on drying time, color parameters, and essential oil content. The control (shade drying) and the 220 W radiation intensity with 0.5 m.s-1 air velocity treatments had the highest (2367 min) and lowest (83 min) drying time, respectively. With increasing infrared intensity, the main color parameters such as L, a, b, ΔE (total color changes) and BI (browning index) changed significantly, compared to the control; however, increasing the airflow rate caused less variation of the mentioned parameters in all levels of infrared radiation intensity than the control. The highest essential oil content (0.23% w/w) was obtained at 125 W radiation intensity with 0.5 m.s-1 air velocity and the lowest (0.12% w/w) was observed at the 220 W radiation intensity with 0.5 and 1 m.s-1 air velocity treatments. Essential oil analysis showed that the highest amount of α-bisabolol-oxide A (60.6%), (Z)-spiroether (16.5%), and chamazulene (4.6%) belonged to 132 W radiation intensity with 0.5 m.s-1 air velocity, 220 W radiation intensity with 0.5 m.s-1 air velocity, and control treatments, respectively. In general, the results of this experiment showed that due to the decreased duration of drying time, color preservation and desired essential oil content and composition, the 125 W radiation intensity with 0.5 m.s-1 air velocity treatment could be a suitable method for chamomile flowers drying.

In this study, Eryngium thyrsoideum Boiss. was collected from three regions Razjerd (Rz) (Qazvin province), Salavatabad (Sv) (Sanandaj, Kurdistan province), and Paygelan (Py) (Marivan, Kurdistan province) at 1700, 1780, and 1840 m above the sea level, respectively, and their volatile components were evaluated. The shade-dried plant materials were hydrodistillated by Clevenger-type apparatus for three hours. The analysis of essential oils composition was carried out by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and quantified by GC-FID. The essential oil content was obtained 0.06, 0.05, and 0.07% (w/w) for Rz, Py and Sv, respectively. The main components of essential oils were 2,3,6-trimethyl benzaldehyde (18.6, 11.5 and 34.0%), 2,4,6-trimethyl benzaldehyde (3.0, 1.0 and 4.1%), germacrene D (2.5, 12.6 and 6.0%), ethyl linoleate (7.6, 8.7 and 5.1%), sesquicineole (0.3, 5.8 and 3.0%), and trans-caryophyllene (5.6, 2.5 and 1.9%) (the numbers in parentheses for Rz, Py and Sv, respectively). In this regard, the water-soluble volatile components of these plants, as distilled water components obtained from the Clevenger side part, were also extracted and finally separated using ethyl acetate solvent and analyzed similarly to essential oil compounds. The amount of these components, as the organic fraction (Of) of distilled water, was 0.017, 0.02, and 0.04 gram per 100 ml of distilled water in Rz, Py, and Sv samples, respectively. The main identified components of these fractions were, 2,3,6-trimethyl-benzaldehyde (69.8, 54.5 and 58.6%), p-vinyl-guaiacol (12.0, 26.7 and 24.7%), 2,4,6-trimethyl-benzaldehyde (9.7, 5.8 and 4.4%), and trans-anethole (4.0, 4.1 and 5.0%) for OfRz, OfPy, and OfSv, respectively. Although E. thyrsoideum does not have a high essential oil percentage, it has a wide range of components. This species has a high content of trimethyl-benzaldehye family compounds. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of volatile components of E. thyrsoideum.

Betulinic acid (BA), oleanolic acid (OA) and ursolic acid (UA) are well-known pentacyclic triterpenoids (PTs), which are produced by plants. They possess a variety of beneficial effects including anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective, antitumor, anti-HIV, antimicrobial, gastroprotective, and antihyperlipidemic activities. In the present study, quantitative determination of these compounds was simultaneously carried out in some Thymus species native to Iran i.e. T. daenensis, T. pubescens, T. persicus and T. caramanicus.

Lyophilized and powdered plant material (1.0 g) was drenched in MeOH and immediately sonicated at room temperature. The methanol extract was further separated into organic and aqueous layers. The organic layer was dissolved in HPLC grade methanol, filtered and analyzed by reverse-phase HPLC.

The maximum content of BA, OA and UA were determined in the aerial parts of T. persicus as856.9, 480.6 and 941.7 mg per 100 g dry weight (DW) of plant, respectively while the other Thymus species had an almost negligible amount of these compounds.

Results showed that the aerial parts of T. persicus could be a considerable source of these PTs which might be attractive for future phytochemical and biological investigations according to importance of their health benefits.