Comparative Phytochemical Analyses of Flowers from Primula veris subsp. veris Growing Wild and from Ex Situ Cultivation in Greece

Abstract

In the last decades, Primula veris subsp. veris (roots and flowers) has been over harvested through legal and illegal ways in Greece, due to its extremely high commercial demand, as it is used in industry because of its well-known therapeutic properties. As ex situ cultures of the plant have been already developed, in the current comparative study, the herbal teas (infusions) from both flowers of cowslip growing wild in the Prespa Lake Park (NW Greece), and from ex situ propagated and cultivated plant material, have been investigated, with the ultimate goal of assessing them qualitatively. Furthermore, through classic phytochemical studies, the ten most abundant metabolites, belonging to the chemical categories of flavonol-glycosides and methoxy flavones, have been identified and structurally determined. The chemical profile of both infusions has been further analyzed through UHPLC-HRMS, showing that they show only light differences. The total phenolic content (TPC) of both studied samples (wild and ex situ cultivation), was determined by the Folin–Ciocalteau method, followed by an antioxidant activity assay though DPPH where, in both cases, wild plants exerted higher phenolic load and stronger antioxidative properties. According to the reported results, it could be proposed that the ex situ cultivated plant material could facilitate the mass production of plants and the sustainable cultivation of cowslip in the Greek mountains.

Exploring the Chemical Content of Primula veris L. subsp. veris Wild-Growing Populations along a Climate Gradient: An HPLC-PDA-MS Quality Assessment of Flowers, Leaves and Roots for Sustainable Exploitation

“…Re kaempferol triglycoside clitorin was also reported in a P. veris subsp. veris infu nating from Prespa Lake Park, northern Greece [33]. Concerning the quantitative data in our study, the investigation of 13 samples of widely scattered wild-growing populations of P. veris subsp.…”

“…As the latter study aimed only to characterize the different extracts and not the plant material itself, any quantitative comparison with our results is not feasible, apart from the deduction that kaempferol derivatives may predominate in the leaves of P. veris, as also reported herein for the studied Greek populations. In another study, Apel et al [33] focused on the secondary metabolite profiles of flowers, leaves, and roots in three flower color variants (yellow, orange, and red) of P. veris (subspecies not mentioned) in southern Germany using HPLC-DAD-MS. The methanolic leaf extracts of the three P. veris variants were reported to exhibit flavonoid profiles comparable to those of flowers, with eight out of the ten flavonoid glycosides identified in the petals being also detected in the leaves (thus obscuring quantitative differences), with kaempferol-3-O-galactoside-rhamnoside-7-O-rhamnoside being reported as the major leaf metabolite in each case.…”

“…Recently, the kaempferol triglycoside clitorin was also reported in a P. veris subsp. veris infusion originating from Prespa Lake Park, northern Greece [33].…”