Misidentification of tansy, tanacetum macrophyllum, as yarrow, achillea grandifolia: a health risk or benefit?

Tansy, Tanacetum macrophyllum (Waldst. & Kit.) Sch. Bip., is often misidentified by herb collectors as yarrow, Achillea grand folia Friv. With the former, cases of poisoning induced by its ingestion are well documented, but the latter is widely used for ethnopharmacological purposes. The aim of this study was to estimate, based on the volatile metabolite profiles of the two species, the potential health risk connected with their misidentification. GC and GC-MS analysis of the essential oils hydrodistilled using a Clevenger-type apparatus from A. grandifolia, T macrophyllum, and two plant samples (reputedly of A. grandifolia, but in fact mixtures of A. grand folia and T macrophyllum) obtained from a local market, resulted in the identification of 215 different compounds. The main constituents of A. grandifolia oil were ascaridole (15.5%), alpha-thujone (7.5%), camphor (15.6%), borneol (5.2%) and (Z)-jasmone (6.4%), and of T macrophyllum oil, 1,8-cineole (8.6%), camphor (6.4%), borneol (9.1%), isobornyl acetate (9.5%), copaborneol (4.2%) and gamma-eudesmol (6.2%). The compositions of the oils extracted from the samples obtained from the market were intermediate to those of A. grandifolia and T macrophyllum. Significant differences in the corresponding volatile profiles and the literature data concerning the known activities of the pure constituents of the oils, suggested that the pharmacological action of the investigated species (or their unintentional mixtures) would be notably different. It seems, however, that misidentification of T macrophyllum as A. grandifolia does not represent a health risk and that the absence of the toxic alpha-thujone from T macrophyllum oil may in fact be regarded as a benefit

Chemotaxonomy of the peppergrass Lepidium coronopus (L.) Al-Shehbaz (syn. Coronopus squamatus) based on its volatile glucosinolate autolysis products

The genus Lepidium comprises approximately 175 different plant species commonly referred to as peppergrasses or pepperworts ( Al-Shehbaz, 1997 and Mummenhoff et al., 2001), which occur worldwide apart from the polar regions where they are considered rare in the Arctic and are absent from Antarctica. Lepidium is a comparatively large genus belonging to the mustard family Brassicaceae. Lepidium coronopus (L.) Al-Shehbaz, a representative of the genus, is a herbaceous annual to biennial plant that belongs to the tribe Lepidieae and has previously been described by the following synonymous species: Coronopus squamatus (Forsskal) Ascherson; C. squamatus subsp. conradi (Muschler) Maire; C. squamatus subsp. eu-verrucarius Maire; Coronopus procumbens Cesati & al.; Coronopus ruellii All.; Coronopus verrucarius Muschler & Thell; Lepidospartum squamatum Forsskål; Senebiera coronopus (L.) Poiret; and Cochlearia coronopus L

The fatty acids and alkanes of Satureja adamovicii Silic and Satureja fukarekii Silic (NOTE)

The content and composition of fatty acids and alkanes of Satureja adamovicii Silic and Satureja fukarekii Silic were analized by GC. It was found that unsaturated acids prevailed and that the major components were palmitic, oleic, linoleic and linolenic acids. The hydrocarbon fractions of pentane extracts were shown to consist of the alkane homologues (C17 to C34) with nonacosane and hentriacontane being prevailing compounds

Alkanes from plants of the genus Achillea

The hydrocarbon fractions of three species of Achillea L. have been analysed by capillary gas chromatography (GC) and GC-mass spectrometry(GC-MS) and were shown to consist of the conventional, odd-carbon number dominant distributions of n-alkane homologues (C22-C35). n-Nonacosane (C29) is the main compound (ca. 40%), and the carbon preference index (CPI) is high (ca. 11)