Effect of spacing and cultivation site on some biological and agricultural properties of Achillea collina Becker

Kopioita.vESA, arkist

Volatile components in whole and different plant parts of Bastard Balm (Melittis melissophyllum L, Lamiaceae) collected in central Italy and Slovakia

The aim of this work was to trap the volatiles released from whole frozen and dry aerial parts, and, separately, from different organs (leaves, stems, corolla and calyx) of bastard balm (Melittis melissophyllum L., Lamiaceae) populations collected in Italy and Slovakia by HS-SPME, and to identify the headspace constituents responsible for the characteristic aroma impression by GC/FID and GC/MS techniques. Among more than 100 volatile components detected, the C8 alcohol oct-1-en-3-ol, responsible for the typical mushroom-like odor, and the phenolic coumarin, with a characteristic sweet and creamy vanilla bean odor, played a major role in the aroma of whole aerial parts and different plant organ samples. In particular, dry calyx parts could be proposed as flavoring agent in food products as mushroom aroma enhancer. Multivariate chemometric techniques, such as cluster analysis and principal component analysis, were used to characterize the sample populations according to the geographical origin and processing of plant material

Antimicrobial and antioxidant activity of the essential oil from the Carpathian Thymus alternans Klokov

The genus Thymus includes several species that are used as avouring, food preservative as well as in cosmetics. Their secondary metabolites have been extensively studied for pharmacological e ects. Nonetheless, some species are neglected and deserve to be explored for chemical composition and biological activities. This is the case with Thymus alternans, a Carpathian bush used as a food additive and for the preparation of a traditional herbal medicine. In this work, we have analysed the chemical composition of T. alternans essential oil by GC and GC-MS and evaluated its antimicrobial and antioxidant activity by disc di usion, DPPH, ABTS and FRAP methods, respectively. Results showed that T. alternans belongs to the nerolidol chemotype, being rich of this sesquiterpene alcohol (15.8%) which might contribute to the antimicrobial (particularly e ective on C. albicans growth) and antioxidant (weak inhibition on ABTS radical and reducing power) activities observed