Elsevier

Food Bioscience

Volume 18, June 2017, Pages 53-59
Food Bioscience

Chemical composition, phenolic content, free radical scavenging and antifungal activities of Achillea biebersteinii

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fbio.2017.04.004Get rights and content

Abstract

In this study, the chemical composition of essential oil isolated by hydrodistillation from the aerial part of Achillea biebersteinii, growing wild in Iran was analyzed by GC and GC-MS. Eleven compounds were identified, representing 96.6% of total components. 1,8-cineole (45.2%), p-cymene (20.8%) and cis-chrysanthenyl acetate (20.4%) were found to be the main components of the oil. The study of the antifungal activity of the essential oil was then carried against five phytopathogenic fungi. High growth inhibitory effects were observed in the investigated oil. Besides, total phenolic contents and DPPH radical scavenging activities of the methanolic extract of A. biebersteinii at different phenological stage including vegetative, floral budding, full flowering (leaves, stem and flowers) and fruit set were assessed for the first time. Variation in total phenolic content and free radical scavenging activities can explained by changes occurred in biological activities and consequently chemical composition of plant throughout the developmental stages. There was a significant correlation between phenolic content and free radical scavenging. The extract of floral budding stage which contained highest phenolic content (113.34 mg GAE/g DW) showed potent free radical scavenging activity (IC50=4.64 µg/ml), and stem extract which have lowest amount of total phenol demonstrated to have weakest IC50 value. As regards the results mentioned above, A. biebersteinii can be applied to the food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical purposes for its acceptable antioxidant and antifungal properties.

Introduction

The genus Achillea which comprises over 100 species, scattered all around the world is one of the most important and youngest evolutionary genera of the Asteraceae family (Rahimmalek et al., 2009a, Gharibi et al., 2013). It comprises perennial, herbaceous and aromatic plants, occurring to the Northern hemisphere (Koçak, Çakici, & Koçlar, 2016) and are native to Europe and Western Asia and a handful in Australia, New Zealand and North America (Rahimmalek, Sayed Tabatabaei, Arzani et al., 2009). Nineteen species of this genus are found in different geographical and ecological regions of Iran, among which seven are endemic (Rechinger, 1963, Mozaffarian, 1966).

Aerial parts from Achillea species used in the traditional medicine of many countries as an appetizer, carminative, wound healer or menstrual regulator (Candan et al., 2003), diuretic, emmenagog agents, against diarrhea and flatulence (Konyalioglu & Karamenderes, 2005) fever, pneumonia, common cold, rheumatic pain, hemorrhage (Manayi, Mirnezami, Saeidnia, & Ajani, 2012). The previous reports have been showed that Achillea species had antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-ulcer, antidiabetic, antitumor, antispermatogenic hepatoprotective (Nemeth & Bernath, 2008) and insecticidal (Nenaah, 2014, Kesdek et al., 2015) effects.

During the last years there has been a growing interest in scientific studies concerning discovery of natural substances including the plant extracts, essential oils of aromatic plants and their components that can be applied to the food, cosmetic, perfume and pharmaceutical industries (Bakkali et al., 2008, Shahwar et al., 2012). Additionally, the essential oils have been prepared and screened for their antifungal properties. Plant diseases and pathogens cause substantially tremendous losses of the accessible yield in the case of major crops productions and, combined with postharvest spoilage and quality degradation, these losses become critical, especially for resource-poor regions (Chakraborty & Newton, 2011). Moreover, the chemical composition of the essential oil of Achillea species and its various biological activities has been widely investigated (Maffei et al., 1994, Konyalioglu and Karamenderes, 2005, Nemeth, 2005, Esmaeili et al., 2006, Tozlu et al., 2011, Gharibi et al., 2013). Antifungal activates of yarrow essential oils were revealed in several species like A. gypsicola (Kordali et al., 2009), A. clavennae, A. holosericea, A. lingulata, A. millefolium (Stojanovic, Radulovic, Hashimoto, & Palic, 2005), A. ligustica (Maggi et al., 2009), A. clavennae (Skočibušić, Bezić, Dunkić, & Radonić, 2004), A. fragrantissima, A. biebersteinni and A. santolina (Kharma & Hassawi, 2006).

In light of the previous studies (Baris et al., 2006, Kordali et al., 2009), it would seem that methanol extract of A. biebersteinii (as a distributed species in Southwest and Central Asia) have weak antifungal activity, while the essential oil showed strong antimicrobial properties. Besides, it is necessary to evaluate essential oils of A. biebersteinii against a broad spectrum of microbial strain.

Likewise, previous studies suggest that antioxidant activities of biologically active compounds that isolated from plant give valuable effect to human health (Lobo, Patil, Phatak, & Chandra, 2010). Nowadays, the use of natural substances such as medicinal plant extracts are considered to preservation of food products owing to their notable antimicrobial and antioxidant, since consumers are avoiding the consumption of products with harmful synthetic additives or preservatives because of their potentially health hazard and undesirable effects such as toxicity and carcinogenicity (Ghasemi Pirbalouti et al., 2013, Teixeira et al., 2013). Most of the species belonging to the Achillea genus possesses high value of activity that may scavenge free radicals and thus inhibit the oxidative mechanisms that lead to degenerative diseases (Özgen, Mavi, Terzi, Coskun, & Yιldιrιm, 2004).

Some studies have demonstrated that antioxidant capacity may be linked to their amount of phenolic compounds (Trumbeckaite et al., 2011). Natural phenolic compounds are commonly found in plants, and they have been described to have multiple biological effects, including antioxidant activity (Wojdyło, Oszmiański, & Czemerys, 2007). Therefor investigation of crude extracts of herbs, spices and other plant materials for discovery of phenolic compounds that can be applied to the food industry has gained interest because they postpone oxidative degradation of lipids and thereby ameliorate the quality and nutritional value of food (Wojdyło et al., 2007). Besides, reports concerning the total phenolic contents of some Achillea extracts such as A. pachycephalla, A. aucherii and A. kellalensis (Gharibi et al., 2013) A. distans and A. moschata (Vitalini et al., 2006) are presented in the literature.

Thus, the main aim of the present study was to determine chemical composition, total phenolic compound, free radical scavenging and antifungal activities of A. biebersteinii from Iran.

Section snippets

Plant materials

A. biebersteinii was collected in June 2015 at the flowering period from Karaj, Alborz province, Iran (1260 m above sea level, GPS coordinates: N 35°48′E 50°55′ and total of precipitation in year 247.3 mm). Voucher specimen (8600251-HSBU) was deposited at the Herbarium of Faculty of Biological Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran. The plant materials were air dried at room temperature in shadow and ground the fine powder, used for extractions.

Isolation of the essential oils

The aerial part of A. biebersteinii were

Essential oil composition

The chemical compositions of the hydrodistillated essential oil obtained from the aerial parts of A. biebersteinii were identified by GC-MS analysis. The essential oil composition along with retention indices and their percentages are given in Table 1, where the components are listed in the order of their elution on the DB-5 column. Eleven compounds were detected, accounting for 96.6% of total components. The main component of the essential oil was 1,8-cineole (45.2%) followed by p-cymene

Conclusion

Essential oil composition of A. biebersteinii show 1,8-cineole and p-cymene as the main components. Exceptionally, the occurrence of nepetalactones in the essential oil was interesting. Considerable antifungal properties were evaluated in essential oil. Also phenolic content and free radical scavenging activities were affected in methanolic extracts obtained from different phenological stages and plant parts. The phenological stage of floral budding demonstrated highest phenolic content and

A disclosure/conflict of interest statement

None of the authors of this paper has a financial or personal relationship with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence or bias the content of the paper.

It is to specifically state that “No Competing interests are at stake and there is No Conflict of Interest” with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence or bias the content of the paper.

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