COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF HERB CULTIVATED ALCHEMILLA MOLLIS AND WILD-GROWING ALCHEMILLA VULGARIS

Abstract

Plants of the genus Alchemilla are being researched as perspective sources of medicinal plant materials in order to obtain substances with various pharmacological properties. The problem of using the agamic-sexual complex Alchemilla vulgaris L.s.l, which has a high variability of morphological characteristics and chemical composition, can be solved by using a Alchemilla culture. Now, Alchemilla mollis (Buser) Rothm is grown in territory of Russia as an ornamental plant. This microspecies is a representative of the flora of southern Europe and, according to the literature, accumulates a large amount of biologically active substances, and also has a high biomass indicators. To assess the possibility of expanding the raw material base of the aerial part of the Alchemilla, was researched content of the main groups of biologically active substances in cultivated A. mollis and wild A. vulgaris in the conditions of the Middle Urals. As a result of the research, phenol carboxylic acids, flavonoids (flavones and flavonols), isoflavones, aurones, catechins, cyanidins, coumarins, condensed and hydrolyzable tannins, ascorbic acid, amino acids, polysaccharides were found in the aerial parts of A. mollis and A. vulgaris. A quantitative analysis showed that the aerial part of A. mollis accumulates a significantly more tannins (with a predominance of condensed forms) and a significantly less ascorbic acid, in comparison with the aerial part of A. vulgaris; differences in the accumulation of polysaccharides and flavonoids were not found. Alchemilla mollis, cultivated in the conditions of Middle Urals, can be proposed as a source of the base of aerial part of the Alchemilla, taking into account the chemotaxonomic features of this microspecies.