Bunium persicum is one of the fragrant herbaceous plants that has many nutritional and medicinal applications. Information about other species of Bunium is scarce. Essential oils, polyphenolics and antioxidant activity were analysed in four species of Bunium. The highest levels of total flavonoids were observed in leaves and fruits of B wolffii while the other polyphenolics did not show significant differences between the species and organs. Gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry (GC/MS) analysis revealed 16, 14, 14 and 13 main components respectively accounting for 97.52% of the entire essential oils of B cylindricum, 91.12% of B paucifolium, 97.14% B persicum and 96.41% of B wolffii. The monoterpenes content was 57.9, 22, 97.14 and 63.83% in B cylindricum, B paucifolium, B persicum and B wolffii respectively whereas sesquiterpenes levels were respectively 1.29, 27.45, 0.0 and 2.98%. The nonterpens constituted 38.33, 41.67, 0.0 and 29.6% in these four species respectively. The highest amount of monoterpenes (97.14%) was observed in B persicum, while the maximum of sesquiterpenes (27.45%) and nonterpenes (41.67%) obtained in B paucifolium. The main constituents were γ‐terpinene, myristicin, cuminaldehyde, apiole, α‐pinene, β‐pinene, β‐selinene, Z‐ β‐ocimene and γ‐terpinene‐7‐al. Cuminaldehyde with the pleasant odour was only revealed in B persicum. All organs of different species except corms showed high antioxidant activity using ABTS and DPPH assay. Thus, similar to B persicum, the other studied species are a rich source of antioxidant compounds and can be used as functional food ingredients and a potential source of natural antioxidants with valuable health benefits.
The genus Bunium L. (Apiaceae) has about 50 species in the world, distributed in Asia, Europe and North Africa. Recently, Bunium has been divided into two separate genera Elwendia and Bunium. Kerman province is the largest province in Iran and has a wide distribution of these genera especially E. persica, as the most important medicinal and spice species. There are a few published studies on the morphology of these genera, especially on flower and fruit morphology. 20 morphological traits were studied to analyze the differences between species. The most important traits in the first principal component analysis (PCA1) were the number of bracts and umbellets per umbel, stylopodial length, corolla shape, empty fruits and the number of flowers and fruits per umbellet. Corolla shape was raised and vertical in B. paucifolium while horizontal and wide in three other species (E. cylindrica, E. persica and E. wolffii). There are 3 to 4 male flowers in the center of umbellet in E. cylindrica, E. wolffii and B. paucifolium while in E. Persica, no male flowers were observed. This study revealed that morphological traits particularly corolla shape are consistent with the molecular phylogenetic results reported by other researchers.
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