and A. I. GlushenkovaDescurainia sophia L. (Cruciferae) is widely used in folk medicine. The decoction of the aerial part is used in Middle Asia for throat diseases and as an antipyretic for measles and smallpox. In Tibetan medicine, the roots are used for St. Anthony's fire and anthrax. The tincture is used as a diuretic, antihelmintic, and hemostatic for internal hemorrhages. In veterinary medicine, the decoction of roots is used for helmintoses and diarrhea in horses and cattle [1,2].We studied seeds of D. sophia collected in Tashkent district in May 2002. Seeds were ground in an electric grinder and extracted exhaustively with benzine (70-80°C) for extraction to afford a yellowish-brown oil in 22% yield. Total lipids were separated by preparative TLC on silica-gel plates using benzine:diethylether (4:1). The contents of individual fractions were estimated gravimetrically. Table 1 lists the results for benzine separation of the extract of D. sophia seeds.Lipids from seeds contained epoxyacylglycerides according to reaction with picric acid. Their content was 6.4% of the lipid mass. Oxygenated compounds are typically found in seed oil from Cruciferae plants.Total lipids and acyl-containing compounds in them were hydrolyzed by KOH. Fatty acids (FA) were methylated by diazomethane [3] and identified as methyl esters by GC ( Table 2). The lipids contained up to 16 FA. The main acids in total lipids and triglycerides (TAG) were linolenic (18:3), linoleic (18:2), arachic (20:0), and eruchic (22:1). The content of these acids and oleic (18:1) in free fatty acids (FFA) were almost identical from 14.2 to 15.9%; of palmitic (16:0), 12.0%. This is two times greater than in the total acids.The FA composition of seeds from plants studied by us differed little with respect to the content of unsaturated C 18 acids from that reported in a review on screening of seed oils from Cruciferae plants [4]. The difference in flora from Uzbekistan consists of a content of 16:0 and 22:1 acids that is elevated several times.

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An intensive process of land deterioration of some regions in Uzbekistan including the Aral Sea basin has led to a significant increase in soil salinity levels and consequently to a considerable reduction of total fertile soil area, as these lands are of little use for plant growth. The area is estimated to be more than 1.4 million ha of seabed. As a result, there was an immediate need to cultivate new crops capable of stopping the movement of sands and the enlargement of saline soils. Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius) is considered to be a moderately salt-tolerant crop and, as such, one of a few crops well suited to the cropping systems of salt-affected soils. It is used in Uzbekistan as a reserve crop when the culture of the main crop fails. In spite of the great economic importance of this oil, there is almost no available information in the literature on the effect of salinity on oil quality and its chemical ingredients. The purpose of the present study was to determine, in greenhouse and field experiments, how irrigation with saline water would influence content of oil, lipids and other lipophylic components in safflower. We found that irrigation of safflower with moderate concentrations of saline water seems feasible, as far as oil and lipid composition is concerned. Consequently, safflower might be a potential crop for lands of little use for plant growth in Uzbekistan or other similar sites in the world.

Chemical, chromatographic, and spectral methods were used to show that the main components of the lipid extract of flowers and leaves are free and bound aliphatic and cyclic alcohols (sterols and triterpenols) and essential oil. It was shown that the lipid extract of Artemisia annua has a positive influence on skin metabolism and possesses anti-inflammatory activity.Key words: Artemisia annua, hydrocarbon extract, polar lipids, fatty acids, skin metabolism, anti-inflammatory activity.Artemisia annua L. (annual wormwood, Asteraceae) grows in Central Asia, Siberia, Europe, North Africa, and America [1]. The antimalarial preparation artemisinin is isolated from its aerial part [2]. Furthermore, annual wormwood is a source of essential oil, the content of which is highest during flowering, ~0.7% of the dry mass [3].The plant lipids are practically unstudied. Only the isolation and identification of four lipophilic components have been reported [4]. Data on the pharmacological properties of these lipids are also lacking.Neutral lipids were isolated from the air-dried flowers and leaves by hydrocarbon (bp 75-80°C) extraction. Then, polar lipids were extracted from the remaining pulp by CHCl 3 :CH 3 OH (2:1 by vol). The CHCl 3 :CH 3 OH extract was purified of nonlipid components by washing with aqueous CaCl 2 (0.05%). The yield of neutral lipids was 4.3% of the air-dried mass; of polar, 4.2%.The hydrocarbon extract was brown and thick and had a characteristic wormwood odor. The carotinoid content was 240 mg%. The acid number of the extract was 1.5 mg KOH.Essential oil was separated from the hydrocarbon extract by steam distillation. The yield was 13.0% of the extract mass and ~0.55% of the dry mass. We have previously reported the composition of the essential oil [5].The total substances remaining after removal of essential oil were extracted from the aqueous layer by diethylether. The ether was removed. The extracted substances were separated by column chromatography over silica gel into individual fractions, extracting them with hexane with a gradually increasing concentration of diethylether from 0 to 100%. Substances were identified by TLC on silica gel using solvent systems 1 and 2 and comparison with model samples of lipids and lipophilic components, qualitative reactions, GC, and mass spectrometry. The contents of the substances were determined gravimetrically (Table 1).It can be seen that paraffins and olefinic hydrocarbons dominate the extract. According to mass spectrometry, they include saturated components of the C 32 -C 20 series (m/z 450-282 [M] + ), monoenes C 38 -C 20 (m/z 532-280 [M] + ), dienes and trienes C 38 -C 28 (m/z 530-390, 528-388 [M] + ), tetraenes C 38 -C 27 (m/z 526-372 [M] + ), and pentaenes C 38 -C 30 (m/z 524-412 [M] + ).The fraction of esters of aliphatic and cyclic alcohols consisted according to mass spectrometry of a combination of saturated fatty acids of the series 24:0-10:0 and unsaturated 18:1, 18:2, and 18:3 with aliphatic alcohols of the series C 30 -C 16 , stigmasterol, β-sitos...