Many taxa of Salvia genus have been used in herbal beverages, food flavoring, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical industry. In this paper, chemical compounds of Salvia eriophora (S. eriophora) leaves were determined by LC–MS/MS (Liquid Chromatography tandem Mass Spectrometry). Salvigenin (158.64 ± 10.8 mg/kg), fumaric acid (123.09 ± 8.54 mg/kg), and quercetagetin‐3.6‐dimethylether (37.85 ± 7.09 mg/kg) were detected as major compounds in the ethanol extract, whereas fumaric acid (555.96 ± 38.56 mg/kg), caffeic acid (103.62 ± 20.51 mg/kg), and epicatechin (83.19 ± 8.43 mg/kg) were detected as major compounds in the water extract. Furthermore, enzyme inhibition of S. eriophora against acetylcholinesterase (AChE), α‐amylase (AM), butyrylcholinesterase (BChE), and α‐glycosidase (AG) enzymes were detected. AChE, BChE, AG, and AM enzymes were very strongly inhibited by S. eriophora water extract (WES) and S. eriophora methanol extract (MES). Additionally, antioxidant potential of S. eriophora was determined by in vitro analytical methods. IC50 values of WES and MES were performed for radicals. Practical applications Metabolic enzymes have crucial functions on living systems due to inhibition or activation of them mainly attributed with some health disorders. AChE, BChE, AM, and AG enzymes have important roles on carbohydrate metabolism or cholinergic pathways. The relation between enzyme inhibition effect and phenolic compounds or antioxidant activity need to be confirmed. Thus, many studies tested to clarify this relation for pure samples or plant extracts. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report about inhibition effects of Salvia eriophora extracts against AChE, BChE, AM, and AG enzymes as well as their phenolic contents and antioxidant activities.

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Foliar epidermal features were based on the micromorphology of trichomes types, epidermal cells and stomatal complex. Even though each feature has its own limited taxonomic value but collectively these characteristics may be systematically important especially for the discrimination and identification of complex and problematic taxa. The systematics significance of nonglandular (NGTs) and glandular trichomes (GTs), stomatal complex and epidermal cells of Lamiaceous flora were analyzed by using the light microscopy (LM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Variations on the observed epidermal appendages were divided into two basic types: glandular and nonglandular. GTs can be divided into subtypes: sessile capitate, subsessile capitate, and barrel and sunken. NGTs were also divided into subtypes: dendritic, stellate, conical, falcate, simple and 1–6 cells long having granulate and smooth surface ornamentation. NGTs were the most dominant features of both adaxial and abaxial surfaces of all observed taxa. Vitex negundo, Isodon rugosus, Colebrookea oppositifolia, and Marrubium vulgare could be demarked because of their twisted like appearance of NGTs at the abaxial surface. The Lamiaceae had both hypostomatic and amphistomatic leaf. Stomata were observed as diacytic, anisocytic, and anomocytic. Epidermal cells were found to be irregular, isodiametric, and rectangular. Based on these characters a taxonomic key was developed to delimit the closely related taxa. Distribution and morphology of the foliar epidermal trichomes through SEM highlight an important taxonomic tool used by the taxonomists as an aid to the correct identification of problematic Lamiaceae taxa.

The identification and quantification of the phenolic contents of methanolic extracts of three Salvia L. species namely S. brachyantha (Bordz.) Pobed, S. aethiopis L., and S. microstegia Boiss. and Bal. were evaluated using reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography, UV adsorption, and mass spectrometry (RP-HPLC/MS). In order to determine the antioxidant capacity of these species, cupric ions (Cu2+) reducing assay (CUPRAC) and ferric ions (Fe3+) reducing assay (FRAP) were performed to screen the reducing capacity and 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay was employed for evaluation of the radical scavenging activity for both solvents. In further investigation, the antimicrobial activities of Salvia species were tested using the disc diffusion method against three Gram-positive and four Gram-negative microbial species, as well as three fungi species. The results showed that there is a total of 18 detectable phenols, the most abundant of which was kaempferol in S. microstegia and rosmarinic acids in S. brachyantha and S aethiopis. The other major phenols were found to be apigenin, luteolin, p-coumaric acid, and chlorogenic acid. All species tested showed moderate and lower antioxidant activity than standard antioxidants such as butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), and ascorbic acid. The ethanolic extracts of Salvia species revealed a wide range of antimicrobial activity. S. brachyantha and S. microstegia showed the highest antimicrobial activities against B. subtilis, whereas S. aethiopis was more effective on Y. lipolytica. None of the extracts showed anti-fungal activity against S. cerevisiae. Thus these species could be valuable due to their bioactive compounds.

Continuing our work on the sources of natural bioactive compounds, we evaluated the antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of Nepeta trachonitica as well as its major phenolic content using the high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) technique. For antioxidant activity, ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) and cupric ion reducing antioxidant capacity (CUPRAC) methods were performed to measure the reducing power and 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay was employed to evaluate the radical scavenging activity of the sample. For antimicrobial activity, three Gram-positive and four Gram-negative microbial species as well as three fungi species were tested. N. trachonitica appeared to have reasonable antioxidant activity and decent antimicrobial activity as indicated by the inhibition of the organisms’ growth. The most susceptible species were Bacillus subtilis ATCC 6633 and Escherichia coli ATCC 11229 among the organisms tested. Ethanol extract of the plant has the highest effect on Saccharomyces cerevisiae but no effect on Yarrowia lipolytica. The HPLC-MS/MS analysis showed that at least 11 major phenolic compounds of N. trachonitica exist, the major ones being rosmarinic acid, chlorogenic acid and quinic acid. The obtained results suggest that N. trachonitica could be a promising source for food and nutraceutical industries because of its antimicrobial and antioxidant properties and phenolic compounds.

No abstract

The family Cactaceae is the diversified group of angiosperm plants whose pollen statistics has been used for taxonomic identification. In this article, we present the pollen morphology of eight species belong to seven taxonomically complex genera of Cactaceae including Astrophytum, Cylindropuntia, Echinocereus, Echinopsis, Mammillaria, Opuntia, and Thelocactus using light and scanning electron microscopy. The pollen grains were acetolyzed, measured, described, and electron photomicrographs were taken. Cactaceae can be characterized by presenting different palynomorphological features including pollen type, sculpturing, polar and equatorial diameter, aperture orientation, exine thickness, P/E ratio, and echini features. Four types of pollen shapes, that is, prolate spheroidal (three species), subprolate (two species), prolate (two species), and oblate spheroidal in Echinocereus reichenbachii were observed. The polar and equatorial diameter observed maximum in O. ficus indica 116.95 and 112.27 μm while minimum in M. compressa 38.42 and 21.05 μm. Pollen of two types, tricolpate in members of subfamily Cactioideae and pantoporate in the Opuntioideae were examined. The fertility percentage has been observed maximum in Opuntia macrocentra (83.84%) and minimum in Opuntia ficus‐indica (57.89%). Exine sculpturing showing great variations such as granulate, reticulate, granulate perforate and micro‐echinate foveolate ornamentation was examined only in Echinopsis eyriesii. A key to species, based on pollen micromorphological attributes, has been constructed for correct identification of complex cactus species.

Statistics around the world show an increased risk of high allergies associated with plants. The role of allergenic pollen is now well known. The most serious allergenic diseases are asthma and rhinitis, which affect 5–30% of the population of industrialized countries. This work focuses on the exploration of allergenic grass species of Islamabad, Pakistan and use microscopic techniques to correctly identify them. This study contains 11 species of grasses which showed variations in pollen morphological features. The dominant pollen shape was prolate, prolate‐spheroidal and sub oblate. The largest polar diameter was calculated for Echinochloa crus‐galli (56.00 μm) while the largest equatorial diameter was found in Cenchrus ciliaris (45.00 μm). Exine ornamentation varied from Gemmate–verrucate, Scabrate–reugulate, Verrucate–reticulate, Gemmate–Scabrate, Fine–Gemmate, Gemmate–rugulate, Gemmate–reticulate, Gemmate–scabrate, Scabrate–verrucate, and Scabrate. Maximum exine thickness was found in Eleusine indica (4.90 μm) while in C. ciliaris (1.50 μm) the minimum thickness of exine was measured. In E. crus‐galli (1.54 μm), the largest P to E value was measured and the smallest value was noticed in Setaria verticillata (0.86 μm). The study was performed with an aim to identify the allergenic plant species in Islamabad‐Pakistan using pollen morphological studies. This study provides significant information, to arrange the pollen types within their defined classes and to discuss various pollen features for developing an allergenic pollen atlas.