نشریه زیست فناوری گیاهان دارویی
سال هشتم شماره 1 (بهار و تابستان 1401)

Artichoke (Cynara scolymus L.), is a perennial herbaceous plant belonging to the Asteraceae family, which has both medicinal and nutritional properties. It seems that harvesting time has an important effect on the quantity and quality of plant products especially on secondary metabolites. In order to analysis of plant or field age on some physiological, biochemical and secondary metabolites characteristics of artichoke, a research project was carried out in a completely randomized design at the research field of medicinal plants at the University of Zanjan. One-year old and two-year old artichoke farms were selected as experimental treatments, and then three plots were randomly selected from each farm in which the plant specimens were taken and the desired traits were measured. According to the results some traits such as: leaf dry weight, leaf length and width, amount of chlorophylls and carotenoids, root soluble proteins and carbohydrates increased at second year old plants. However; shoot soluble proteins and carbohydrate and also the total number of extracted secondary metabolites were decreased by increasing of plant age. D-methyl Buta Dienil (26.18 %), Pentacosadiynoic acid (21.24%), Inositol (10.97%) and Tetramethyl-octahydronaphthalen (9.61%) were the major compounds of one-year old artichoke plants and scyllo inositol (59.01%), methyl-hexadecatetra enoate (20.46%), isopropenyl-methanol (5.2%) and glucopyranose (4.71%) were the major components two-year old artichoke plant leaf extract.  It can be concluded that plant age has noticeable effects on growth and biochemical and specially on secondary metabolites properties of artichoke.

Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) is one of the oldest medicinal and spice plants in the world. In order to investigate the effects of plant age on secondary metabolites and some physiological factors of saffron, a research project was conducted in a completely randomized design with three replications at the research field of medicinal plants of the University of Zanjan. Three saffron farms with different biological ages of one, two and five years old were selected as experimental treatments, and then three plots were randomly selected from each farm and the desired traits were measured. Results showed that, increasing of the age of saffron plants in this experiment increased fresh weight of plant and dry weight of stigma. 5-yraes old plants showed the highest amounts of these traits. Whereas, the contents of soluble proteins and sugars and photosynthetic pigments were higher at first year and decreased by increasing of plant age. Number of secondary metabolites decreased when the age of plants increased as in one–year old saffron plants 26 metabolites and in 5-year old plants only 15 metabolites were detected. Loliolid (18%) and thymol (17%) in 1-year old plants and thymol (19%) and camphor (14%) in 5-year old plants showed the highest level among all detected secondary compounds. Generally according to these results, plant age has an important effect on the number and kinds of secondary metabolites in saffron which should be considered at the time of saffron harvesting.

Irinotecan is considered to be one of the most effective anticancer drugs for colorectal cancer therapy. In this study, the role of human serum albumin (HSA), as a protein biopolymer and safe drug delivery system, in the binding of irinotecan was surveyed. The interaction between irinotecan and HSA has been studied by fluorimetry, circular dichroism (CD) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy as well as molecular docking study. By the analysis of the fluorescence spectra, it was observed that irinotecan can quench the intrinsic fluorescence of HSA through a static quenching procedure. The binding parameters were determined according to the modified Stern-Volmer equation and the enthalpy change (ΔH° and entropy change (ΔS°) of binding were calculated to be -19.11 kJ mol−1 and 13.80 J mol−1 K−1, respectively. The Analysis of the thermodynamic parameters indicated that the hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions played the dominant role in the stabilization of the irinotecan-HSA complex. The competitive site markers experiments indicated that the drug binds to the site I of HSA, confirmed by molecular docking. The distance, r, between the donor (HSA) and the acceptor (irinotecan) was obtained according to Förster’s theory of non-radiation energy transfer. The quantitative analysis of the far-UV CD and FT-IR spectra represented that irinotecan has induced some alterations in the secondary and tertiary structures of the protein.

Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) is one of the oldest medicinal and spice plants in the world. Several factors affect the growth and production of saffron including: age and the number of corms per surface area, soil texture, the time of plant culture, time and kind of irrigation, mineral nutrition and ecological factors. It seems that the quantity and quality of saffron products are greatly different at different plant ages. The plant or field age has important effect on growth indices of saffron and its secondary metabolites. In order to investigate the effects of plant age on secondary metabolites and some physiological factors of saffron, a research project was conducted in a completely randomized design with three replications at the research field of medicinal plants of the University of Zanjan. Three saffron farms with different biological ages of one, two and five years old were selected as experimental treatments, and then three plots were randomly selected from each farm and the desired traits were measured. Results showed that, increasing of the age of saffron plants in this experiment increased fresh weight of plant and dry weight of stigma. 5-yraes old plants showed the highest amounts of these traits. Whereas, the contents of soluble proteins and sugars and photosynthetic pigments were higher at first year and decreased by increasing of plant age. Number of secondary metabolites decreased when the age of plants increased as in one–year old saffron plants 26 metabolites and in 5-year old plants only 15 metabolites were detected. Loliolid (18%) and thymol (17%) in 1-year old plants and thymol (19%) and camphor (14%) in 5-year old plants showed the highest level among all detected secondary compounds. Generally according to these results, plant age has an important effect on the number and kinds of secondary metabolites in saffron which should be considered at the time of saffron harvesting.

Ferula.gummosa is one of the important medicinal plants in Iran and world. Today this plant is endangered in nature. One of the reasons for the threat is the long dormancy of galbanum seeds and its very low germination power, along with its uncontrolled harvesting. In this research, which was conducted in a completely randomized design with 3 replications and 3 treatments at the Biotechnology Research Institute of Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, galbanum plant embryos from Fars province were seprated from seeds and cultured to find the best concentration for growth in MS media with concentrations of 1/2-1/4 and complete MS media. After 30 days, traits such as seedling length, seedling weight, and percentage of germination in each medium were measured and compared. The results showed that the growth rate of this plant in MS1/4 media was higher than the two other concentrations . According to available published sources, the results of this study are reported for the first time on the effect of culture medium concentration on germination and seedling growth indices of Ferula.gummosa plant

Artificial seed technology is a novel method in biotechnology where artificial seeds are produced and encapsulated using various materials and processes. These seeds are typically created by encapsulating plant meristems or somatic embryos, using polymer materials such as sodium alginate for encapsulation. One of the advantages of these seeds is the easier and better cultivation of certain plants, especially those with harder germination conditions due to dormancy or environmental factors. However, the use of artificial seed technology comes with challenges, including environmental impacts, production costs, and technical issues such as improving encapsulation processes and the quality of artificial seeds. This article introduces artificial seeds and production methods, the materials used for encapsulation, the principles of encapsulation, the advantages, and challenges faced by these seeds. Some companies active in the field of artificial seeds and the plants from which artificial seeds are produced are introduced to further study and advance this technology.