Authors:
YU. V. PLUHATAR, doctor of agricultural sciences, corresponding member of RAS, director,
O. M. SHEVCHUK, doctor of biological sciences, head of laboratory,
L. A. LOGVINENKO, research officer,
NIKITSKY BOTANICAL GARDEN – NATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CENTRE OF THE RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES (52 Nikita slope, 298648, Yalta, urban-type settlement Nikita)
Abstract. In order to search for new sources of medicinal raw materials, an introductory and biochemical study of the aboveground mass of natural plant species is conducted in the Nikitsky Botanical Garden. The article presents the results of a primary introductory study of Prunella grandiflora (L.) Jack., P. laciniata (L.) L. and P. vulgaris L. – valuable sources of phenolic compounds – in the Southern coast of the Crimea. High plant survival rate and seed germination testify the prospects of introduction of these species and its further industrial cultivation in this region Phenolic compounds of the studied species are represented by hydroxycinnamic acids (chlorogenic, coffee and rosemary acids) and flavonols (rutin and quercetin-3-O- glucoside). The ratio of these compounds to the flowering phase is characterized by a significant predominance of the first one (45.83 mg/g in comparison with 19.6 mg/g), while in the fruiting phase they are almost in equal amounts – 11.41 and 11.20 mg/g. The dominant component of phenolic compounds is rosmarinic acid, the concentration of which is determined within 91.6–92.3 % of the amount of hydroxycinnamic acids. The highest concentration of rosmarinic acid was observed at Prunella vulgaris (41.98 mg/g) in the mass flowering phase. To the phase of seed ripening in subtropical climate conditions a decrease in the amount of rosmarinic acid in the above-ground mass of this species is observed almost at 5 times. The content of phenolic compounds (and in particular rosmarinic acid) in the aboveground mass of Prunella grandiflora and P. vulgaris species growing in natural phytocenoses of the Crimea and the Caucasus makes it possible to talk about their value as sources of biologically active substances.
Keywords: introduction, collection of medicinal plants, Prunella vulgaris L., Prunella grandiflora (L.) Jack., rosmarinic acid.
