Abstract
Allicin is a sulfur compound found in genus Allium characterized by numerous biological and pharmacological properties. Melanocrommyum, the second largest subgenus of Allium, has about 10 sections and 82 species in Iran. In this study, allicin content of aerial part, aerial part fresh mass and allicin yield belonging to 17 wild populations of six species of Allium sect. Acanthoprason and Asteroprason growing in different region of Iran, were analyzed. Allicin content evaluation using HPLC method showed its variation between populations from 26.98 to 58.11 mg g-1 FW, also showing that all the tested populations of Allium are rich in allicin. The average of aerial part fresh mass and allicin yield varied between populations from 0.49 g to 1.66 g and from 14 mg to 78 mg, respectively. The populations were classified in four major groups using dendrogram generated by UPGMA method of cluster analysis. However, grouping of populations was not completely related to species and geographical regions. This study is the first evaluation of allicin content in wild populations of Allium sect. Acanthoprason and Asteroprason in Iran. High amount of allicin in these populations make them a new sources of allicin.
Highlights
Plants of the genus Allium belonging to monocotyledonous flowering plants comprise more than 900 accepted species, with main center of diversity in the eastern Mediterranean area, Southwest and Central Asia (Fritsch & Abbasi, 2013)
The percentage of allicin content varied from 26.98 to 58.11 mg g-1 FM, where the highest content was found for Shen Jari population of A. pseudobodeanum, followed by Dehdasht of A. minutiflorum (57.95 mg g-1 FM), Pir Baba Ali of A. subakaka (56.87 mg g-1 FM) and Shirpala, another population of A. pseudobodeanum (55.94 mg g-1 FM), while the lowest content belonged to Taze Abad Oryeh population of A. kurdistanicum, followed by Vali Abad of A. derderianum (27.42 mg g-1 FM)
Variation in allicin content of different ecotypes of garlic as a main source of this valuable metabolite is reported in previous studies (Baghalian et al, 2005; Wang et al, 2014; Mostafa et al, 2015; Panahandeh et al, 2016)
Summary
Plants of the genus Allium belonging to monocotyledonous flowering plants comprise more than 900 accepted species, with main center of diversity in the eastern Mediterranean area, Southwest and Central Asia (Fritsch & Abbasi, 2013). Allium species have been used for centuries as vegetables, as well as medicinal plants. Most of medicinal properties of Alliums are mainly attributed to phenolic (like flavonoids: kaempferol, myricetin and quercetin derivatives) and sulfur-containing compounds and beneficial elements such as selenium (Omar & Al-Wabel, 2010; Nwachukwu & Slusarenko, 2014; Soto et al, 2016). Organic sulphur compounds like alliin, allicin, allyl sulfide, (E)-ajoene, (Z)-ajoene and 1,2-vinyldithiin are responsible for odor, flavor and most of biological activities of Alliums (Block, 1992; Benkeblia & Lanzotti, 2007). Allicin (diallylthiosulfinate) has received more attention due to its significant human health benefits (Oommen et al, 2004; Rahman, 2007; Borlinghaus et al, 2014; Ye et al, 2016)
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