The Initiation of a Phytosociological Study on Certain Types of Medicinal Plants

Abstract

The cultivation of medicinal plants represents great necessity and topicality these days, given that the pharmaceutical industry requires high quality raw materials in large quantities. Those are used for the production of food supplements/phytomedicines/medical devices or gemmo-derivatives’ products. Starting from these premises, this present study aimed to culture common batches of different associations of medicinal plants in order to quantify the fabrication of plant products, but also to observe possible changes in their internal structure, in direct correlation with the biosynthesis of active principles. The crops were monitored in 2018–2021. It was found that in all the common crops compared to the control ones, the amount of vegetable product provided was much higher (for example, the thyme-rosemary crop produced 730 g of fresh vegetable plants, compared with 540 g in the control crop; St. John’s Wort in culture with lemon balm delivered 1934 g of vegetable product, compared with 1423 g obtained from the control crop; mint was grown with lemon balm and produced a double amount of vegetable mass compared with the control crop). The presence of numerous glandular hairs in the samples from the phytosociological groups for the species from the Lamiaceae family, could explain the difference in the volatile oil content (4 mL/100 g produced by rosemary from the thyme-rosemary crop compared with 3.6 mL/100 g from the control one; 6.6 mL/100 g generated by thyme from the thyme-rosemary crop compared with 3.6 mL/100 from the control group; 2 mL/100 g of lemon balm volatile oil from the mint-lemon balm compared with 0.6 mL/100 g). The content of other types of active principles is dependent on the culture association. From results analysis it was found that in the phytosociological groups, flavones, PCAs and total polyphenols were significantly higher compared to control ones (2.4413 ± 0.1858 g flavones expressed in rutin/100 g in the thyme dried leaves from thyme-rosemary to 1.9317 ± 0.0947 g flavones produced by the control thyme; 9.9461 ± 0.8385 g PCAs expressed in chlorogenic acid/100 g for the same sample compared with 6.9709 ± 1.4921 g produced by the control batch; 11.1911 ± 0.7959 g TPC expressed in tannic acid/100 g in the thyme dried leaves from the thyme-rosemary phytosociological crop to 6.0393 ± 0.3204 g from the control one). The obtained results can be a starting point regarding the potential associations of medicinal plants in crops, in order to obtain a qualitative and quantitative vegetal mass.

Implications of the Cultivation of Rosemary and Thyme (Lamiaceae) in Plant Communities for the Development of Antioxidant Therapies

“…The outcomes of the present study agreed with previously published data from our research on plant raw materials [6,40]. The growth of the two species in phytosociological batches is beneficial for polyphenolic derivative synthesis.…”

“…The extracts obtained from these vegetal raw materials had a higher polyphenolic content than those obtained from the control samples. The solvent selected to obtain the extracts was 50% ethanol, based on previous research and literature [6,40,[42][43][44] and using more ecological solvents that do not generate toxic metabolites.…”

“…The morphological and phytochemical properties of the harvest were examined by contrasting each crop with the control batch [7,40]. Each year in July, the plants were gathered and dried at a lab at the Faculty of Pharmacy's Department of Pharmacognosy, Phytochemistry, and Phytotherapy, Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest.…”

Phytochemical Profile, Antioxidant and Cytotoxic Potential of Capsicum annuum (L.) Dry Hydro-Ethanolic Extract

“…The absorbance values were measured at 427 nm, using rutin as standard. The TF was quantified as mg Eq rutin/100 g CAE [ 10 ].…”

“…The absorbance values were measured at 427 nm, using rutin as standard. The TF was quantified as mg Eq rutin/100 g CAE [10]. Under an antioxidant, the purple free radical 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) formed its corresponding yellow hydrazine.…”