Abstract
The chemical composition of three Silphium species in the aspect of the possibility of their use for various purposes has been evaluated. The plant material of three Silphium species (S. perfoliatum, S. trifoliatum and S. integrifolium) was acquired from cultivation located in eastern Poland. The vegetative propagating material consisted of seeds and rhizomes. Content of protein (up to 22.9% in leaves of S. perfoliatum), amino acids (aspartic acid—up to 12.0%, glutamic acid—up to 9.5%, and leucine—up to 9.4%), fat (up to 4.2% in inflorescences of S. perfoliatum), cellulose (up to 42.9% in stems of S. trifoliatum), water-soluble sugars (up to 26.7% in rhizomes of S. perfoliatum) and mineral substances (ash up to 20.9% in stems of S. integrifolium, with significant levels of elements such as K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn) in the tested Silphium species can be an important criterion determining a positive evaluation of these plants as sources of alternative raw materials. The conducted research is meant to draw attention to the possibility of use of the biomass of three Silphium species as a potential source of ecological and renewable raw material for food, pharmaceuticals, feed and possibly also for energy generation purposes.
Highlights
At present, one can observe a trend for the search for plants that can provide, e.g., food products with specific health-promoting properties, raw materials for the pharmaceutical industry, and renewable sources of energy
The literature reports that S. perfoliatum is characterised by a high production potential in terms of yields, and contains significant levels of nutrients, i.e., carbohydrates, proteins, L-ascorbic acid, and mineral constituents [1,2,3] and biologically active substances, i.e., terpenoids and essential oil [4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12], flavonoids [2,13], phenolic acids [14,15,16], and oleanosides [2,17,18]
Glyaubertene and Ivanovskaya [44] and Pavlov et al [50] report that stems of S. perfoliatum contain up to three-fold more cellulose compared to its content in the leaves, i.e., approx. 30%–35% and 11%, respectively, converted to dry matter (DM)
Summary
One can observe a trend for the search for plants that can provide, e.g., food products with specific health-promoting properties, raw materials for the pharmaceutical industry, and renewable sources of energy. Research on new crop plants is related to the protection of the natural environment, i.e., organic agriculture, biological reclamation of soils, and counteracting the greenhouse effect. These trends have caused an increase in the interest in new plant species both on the part of farmers and of the users of plant raw materials. In recent years anatomical-morphological studies were conducted, as well as studies on yield efficiency and on the content of biologically active substances, for three species from the genus Silphium: S. perfoliatum, S. trifoliatum, and S.integrifolium [27,28,29,30,31].
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