Biochemical Characteristics and Elemental Composition Peculiarities of Rheum tataricum L. in Semi-Desert Conditions and of European Garden Rhubarb

Abstract

Biochemical and mineral peculiarities of plants inhabiting desert and semi-desert areas may provide important information about the mechanism of their adaptability and reveal the prospects of their utilization. Rheum tataricum L., known for its high tolerance to drought, salinity, and nutritional deficiency, is the least studied species of wild rhubarb. Using biochemical and ICP-MS analysis, the antioxidant status and mineral composition of R. tataricum were determined. Extremely high levels of antioxidant activity (148–155 mg GAE g−1 d.w.), polyphenols (24.6–25.1 mg GAE g−1 d.w.) and carotenoids (1.94 mg-eq β-carotene g−1 d.w.) were revealed in roots, proline in leaves (71.1 ± 6.2 mg kg−1 d.w.) and malic acid in stems (3.40 ± 0.50 mg g−1 d.w.). Compared to garden rhubarb, R. tataricum demonstrated significant root–leaves translocation of Li, Se, Si, and Mo, known to participate in plant antioxidant defense. Under high levels of Ca, Na, Mg, Fe, Cr and Si in soil, R. tataricum demonstrated the ability to significantly increase the accumulation of these elements in roots, showing a hyperaccumulation ability for Sr. The first broad picture of R. tataricum biochemical and mineral characteristics in semi-desert habitat and its nutritional value indicate the prospects of R. tataricum utilization in plant breeding, medicine, and nutrition.

Varietal Differences in Juice, Pomace and Root Biochemical Characteristics of Four Rhubarb (Rheum rhabarbarum L.) Cultivars

“…Rhubarb roots are highly valuable in traditional medicine due to their anti-carcinogenic, anti-inflammatory and antidiabetic effects [ 2 ]. According to our results, they have the highest content of antioxidants, which is consistent with previous investigation on R. tataricum [ 56 ]. The data presented in Table 2 , Table 4 and Table 5 indicate, that the AOA activity gradually decreased from the root pulp to the root peel, juice pomace and juice, while the rhubarb roots showed the highest nitrate content.…”

“…Upryamets) ( Table 3 ). The tendency for citric acid to be in excess (18.8) was recorded in our previous research on Rheum tataricum grown in the semi-desert area of Bogdinsko–Baskunchak Nature Reserve (Astrakhan region) [ 56 ]. The data in Table 3 indicate that rhubarb juice is characterized by the predominance of citric, oxalic and succinic acids with the total content accounting for 98% of the total organic acids amount, while the malic acid content did not exceed 0.2–0.5%.…”

Content of Organic Acid and Essential Fatty Acid in Natural Sweet Chestnuts Growing in Giresun/Turkey

“…Succinic acid is found more in foods such as broccoli, rhubarb and sugar beet. Succinic acid was identified in dry rhubarb stems and its concentration was found to be 2.600 and 8.990 mg/g in two different varieties (Golubkina et al 2022). The concentration of succinic acid in tomatoes was examined by Marconi and Montanari, and the range was 0.088-0.190 mg/g in 5 of the 7 tomato juice samples (Marconı et al 2007).…”

Changes of physiological characteristics, element accumulation and hormone metabolism of tea leaves in response to soil pH

“…Acidification is an abiotic stress on the plant itself, and under stress conditions, plant uptake of soil elements was altered, for different types of abiotic stress, there were significant differences in the mechanisms of element uptake and utilization by plants ( Dhaliwal et al., 2022 ). For example, under drought stress, Rheum tataricum increased the translocation and accumulation of Li, Se, Si, and Mo, which in turn improved the Rheum tataricum own antioxidant defense ( Golubkina et al., 2022 ). Heavy metal stress reduced the uptake of P, Mn, Ca, S, K and Mg, antioxidant enzyme activities and photosynthetic capacity of Lemna minor ( Alp et al., 2023 ).…”