Abstract
The family Cistaceae (Angiosperm, Malvales) consists of 8 genera and 180 species, with 5 genera native to the Mediterranean area (Cistus, Fumara, Halimium, Helianthemum, and Tuberaria). Traditionally, a number of Cistus species have been used in Mediterranean folk medicine as herbal tea infusions for healing digestive problems and colds, as extracts for the treatment of diseases, and as fragrances. The resin, ladano, secreted by the glandular trichomes of certain Cistus species contains a number of phytochemicals with antioxidant, antibacterial, antifungal, and anticancer properties. Furthermore, total leaf aqueous extracts possess anti-influenza virus activity. All these properties have been attributed to phytochemicals such as terpenoids, including diterpenes, labdane-type diterpenes and clerodanes, phenylpropanoids, including flavonoids and ellagitannins, several groups of alkaloids and other types of secondary metabolites. In the past 20 years, research on Cistus involved chemical, biological and phylogenetic analyses but recent investigations have involved genomic and molecular approaches. Our lab is exploring the biosynthetic machinery that generates terpenoids and phenylpropanoids, with a goal to harness their numerous properties that have applications in the pharmaceutical, chemical and aromatic industries. This review focuses on the systematics, botanical characteristics, geographic distribution, chemical analyses, biological function and biosynthesis of major compounds, as well as genomic analyses and biotechnological approaches of the main Cistus species found in the Mediterranean basin, namely C. albidus, C. creticus, C. crispus, C. parviflorus, C. monspeliensis, C. populifolius, C. salviifolius, C. ladanifer, C. laurifolius, and C. clusii.
Highlights
Cistus L. or rock rose, is a genus of dicotyledonous perennial herbaceous plants that have hard leaves and grow in open areas of stony and infertile soils
This review focuses on the systematics, botanical characteristics, geographic distribution, chemical analyses, biological function and biosynthesis of major compounds, as well as genomic analyses and biotechnological approaches of the main Cistus species found in the Mediterranean basin, namely C. albidus, C. creticus, C. crispus, C. parviflorus, C. monspeliensis, C. populifolius, C. salviifolius, C. ladanifer, C. laurifolius, and C. clusii
In this review we focus on the major representatives of Cistus species: C. albidus, C. creticus, C. crispus, C. parviflorus, C. monspeliensis, C. populifolius, C. salviifolius, C. ladanifer, C. laurifolius, and C. clusii, which are commonly found in the Mediterranean basin
Summary
Cistus L. (from the Greek word kistos-κιστoς) or rock rose, is a genus of dicotyledonous perennial herbaceous plants that have hard leaves and grow in open areas of stony and infertile soils. Demoly and Montserrat (1993) described the distribution of 12 species of genus Cistus that grow in Iberia In this approach, 3 subgenera were classified: I. subgenus Cistus, containing C. albidus, C. creticus, C. crispus, and C. heterophyllus; II. A similar classification was achieved by analyzing polyphenolic composition of aerial parts of the most common species, which separated Cistus subgenus from the two other subgenera by its higher flavonoid content (Barrajón-Catalán et al, 2011) Another phylogenetic study confirmed the chemical and genetic (ISSR—PCR amplification) differentiation between the C. creticus subspecies eriocephalus and corsicus (Paolini et al, 2009). The plants were geographically divided into three groups, two in the West and one in the Eastern part of Crete (Demetzos et al, 2002a)
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