Secondary metabolites and metal content dynamics in Teucrium montanum L. and Teucrium chamaedrys L. from habitats with serpentine and calcareous substrate

Abstract

The purpose of this comparative analysis is the determination of the total quantity of metals (Mg, Ca, K, Ni, Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, Cr and Pb) in soil samples, above ground plant parts and tea made of plants Teucrium montanum and T. chamaedrys from different serpentine and calcareous habitats as well as of the total quantity of phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity. The obtained results showed that the quantities of certain metals (Mg, Fe, Ni and Mn) in the soil from the serpentine habitats were greater in comparison with other metals (Ca, Zn and Pb) which were more frequently found in the soil from the calcareous habitats. The results demonstrated that the analysed plant samples from the serpentine habitats contained higher quantity of Fe, Ni and Cr as opposed to the plant samples from the calcareous habitats which contained greater quantity of Ca and Zn. Although the studied species accumulate analysed metals in different quantities, depending on the substrate type, they are not hyperaccumulators of these metals. The use of these species from serpentine habitats for tea preparation is safe to a great extent, because in spite of the determined metal absorption by plant organs, the tea does not contain dangerous quantity of heavy metals. The results showed greater total quantity of phenolic compounds and the higher level of antioxidant activity in the plant samples from serpentine habitats in comparison with the samples from calcareous habitats, which is an indicator of one of the mechanisms of adaptation to the serpentine habitat conditions.

Variability of Secondary Metabolites of the Species Cichorium intybus L. from Different Habitats

“…This is important in the light of the fact that the lower IC 50 values imply higher levels of antioxidant activity. Similar conclusions have been reached in other studies [ 42 , 43 ].…”

Comparative Chemical and Biological Activity of Selective Herbal Extracts

“…The spreading pf the studied plantsis correlated to all literature data that indicates that Teucrium genus representatives are adapted to higher altitude habitats [1,14,16,26]. However, in Serbia there is a warmhumid continental influence whereas in North-East Romania the climate is dry continental.…”

“…Moreover, both extracts obtained from T. montanum contain the lowest amounts of flavonoids and polyphenols as compared to the other two species. By correlating with available data, T. chamaedris and T. polium are indicated as important sources of polyphenols and flavonoids, but comparative studies between all three species in terms of their chemical profile are scarce [9,14,18,20,24,26]. The flavonoid and polyphenolic acids from the investigated extracts are indicated in Table II, according to their identification and quantification by UPLC-PDA analysis.…”

“…[22][23][24]. Most of the available data suggests that alcohols (methanol and ethanol) might be the best solvent for a complete extraction of the flavonoid and polyphenolic molecules synthetized by Teucrium species [9,[22][23][24]26]. However, methanolic/dichloromethane extracts from Teucrium species have not been studied previously.…”

Chemical and pharmacological characterization of aqueous and ethanolic extracts of Cyclamen hederifolium Ait. (Primulaceae) tuber

“…The dry obtained extracts were stored in a desiccator until the experiment. Mn, Ca, Mg, Fe, Zn, K, Cu, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cd [19,20] . Determination of metal content in plant material was performed dissolving 1g of sample by mixture of conc.HNO3 and conc.…”