Discrimination of common Iris species from Egypt based on their genetic and metabolic profiling

Abstract

Introduction Irises have been medicinally used in Ancient Egyptians, Anatolian, Chinese, British and Irish folk medicine. They are also well‐known ornamental plants that have economic value in the perfume industry. The main obvious diagnostic difference between the different species is based on the morphology of the flowers. The flowering cycle is very short as well as the persistence of the fully opened flowers extends for a few days only. Moreover, the climatic conditions significantly causes fluctuation in their blooming time from year to year. This makes the morphological discrimination very difficult. The discrimination of different iris species is of a great importance, as each species is reported to possess different folk medicinal activities. Objectives Finding genetic and metabolic markers for differentiation between Iris confusa Sealy (Subgen. Limniris Sect. Lophiris), I. pseudacorus L. (Subgen. Limniris Sect. Limniris) and I. germanica L. (Subgen. Iris Sect. Iris) on levels other than traditional taxonomic features. Material and Methods Inter‐simple sequence repeat (ISSR) and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) analyses were performed. Results The highest similarity was found between I. pseudacorus L. and I. germanica L. and the least similarity was between I. confusa Sealy and I. pseudacorus L. The metabolic profiling of the leaves confirmed genetic profiling discriminating I. confusa from the other two species. The primary metabolites of the underground parts showed clear discrimination between the three species. Conclusions This study represents the sole complete map for distinguishing the three Iris species on genetic and metabolic bases.

Exploring the Use of Iris Species: Antioxidant Properties, Phytochemistry, Medicinal and Industrial Applications

“…Primary metabolites have mainly been found in the leaves of Iris spp., including I. germanica L., I. pseudacorus L. and I. confuse Sealy [127]. They belong to various classes, such as amino acids (methionine sulfoxide, proline, alanine, lysine, glycine, phenylalanine, asparagine, valine, ornithine, threonine, glutamine, serine, tryptophan), sugars (rhamnose, raffinose, fructose, melibiose, xylose), sugar acids (gluconic), vitamins (nicotinic and ascorbic acid), amino alcohols (ethanolamine), nucleotides (uracil), organic acids (allantoic, oxalic, aspartic) and sugar alcohols (xylitol, erythritol, glycerol) [127].…”

“…Flavonoids are the most abundant group of phenolic compounds in the genus Iris. They are mainly represented by flavones and flavone glycosides (13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28), isoflavones , flavanols , flavan-3-ols (104, 105), dihydroflavonol (107), flavanonol (110)(111)(112)(113), xanthones (114)(115)(116)(117)(118)(119)(120)(121)(122)(123)(124)(125)(126)(127)(128)(129)(130) and anthocyanins (131)(132)(133)(134)(135)(136)(137)(138)(139)(140) [79,…”

“…Similarly, xanthones (114)(115)(116)(117)(118)(119)(120)(121)(122)(123)(124)(125)(126)(127)(128)(129)(130) are flavonoid compounds that exist in a substantial amount in the rhizomes, roots, leaves and flowers of several Iris spp., including I. pallida Lam., I. hungarica Waldst. & Kit, I. sibirica L., I. variegata L. and I. humilis Georgi [75,[100][101][102][103].…”

“…They belong to various classes, such as amino acids (methionine sulfoxide, proline, alanine, lysine, glycine, phenylalanine, asparagine, valine, ornithine, threonine, glutamine, serine, tryptophan), sugars (rhamnose, raffinose, fructose, melibiose, xylose), sugar acids (gluconic), vitamins (nicotinic and ascorbic acid), amino alcohols (ethanolamine), nucleotides (uracil), organic acids (allantoic, oxalic, aspartic) and sugar alcohols (xylitol, erythritol, glycerol) [127]. In addition to their role in plant growth and development, primary metabolites could serve as crucial chemotaxonomic markers for the genus Iris when the classical botanical techniques show doubtful results [127,128].…”

Irigenin, a novel lead from Iris confusa for management of Helicobacter pylori infection with selective COX-2 and HpIMPDH inhibitory potential

“…In addition, nothing was traced about the biological activity of its isolated compounds except the study conducted by Chen et al 2018 who studied their anti- hepatitis B potential 34 . In a continuation of our interest in exploring irises metabolites and their possible activities 35 , I. confusa was selected for this study. Its polar and non-polar fractions were subjected to chromatographic fractionation and purification with the aim of isolation of its major constituents and testing their anti H. pylori and selective anti-inflammatory potencies.…”