Abstract
Species of the genus Lathyrus L. are known as forage and medicinal plants, widely used in traditional medicine and homeopathy. The content of protein, essential amino acids and carotene in their green biomass is higher than in other annual leguminous plants traditionally cultivated in Russia. Until now, the requirements for the crop’s quality were reduced to a high content of protein and dry matter in seeds and herbage. In-depth biochemical analysis of accessions from the collection of plant genetic resources will significantly improve selection of source materials for breeding. Such tasks can be solved using gas chromatography with mass spectrometry in plant diversity studies. In view of the above, our goal was to analyze organic acids, free amino acids and secondary metabolites in green biomass of Lathyrus to facilitate comprehensive assessment of its forage and pharmacological value. We analyzed 32 accessions of Lathyrus sativus L., L. tuberosus L., L. sylvestris L., L. vernus (L.) Bernh., L. latifolius L. and L. linifolius (Reichard) Bassler from the collection of the Vavilov Institute (VIR). The studied Lathyrus accessions had significant interspecific and intraspecific variability both in the composition (presence) and number of the identified compounds. The analysis of plants across different years confirmed that biochemical parameters depended on weather conditions. The colder and drier conditions of 2012 contributed to the accumulation of organic acids (mean: 890 mg/100 g), free amino acids (mean: 201.59 mg/100 g), and secondary metabolites (mean: 84.14 mg/100 g). The range of variability for organic acids ranged from 140 to 2140, for free amino acids from 11.8 to 610, and for secondary metabolites from 4.4 to 224.6 mg/100 g. Grass pea accessions with high organic acid, free amino acid and secondary metabolite contents were identified: k-900 (Colombia) for organic acids (2140, 610 and 178 mg/100 g); k-51 (Georgia) and k-959 (Afghanistan) for free amino acids (401.29 and 540.63 mg/100 g); k-893 (Eritrea) for secondary metabolites (199.39 mg/100 g), etc. They can serve as source material for the development of cultivars for different uses (forage and medicinal).
Highlights
Researching the chemical composition of cultivated plants and their wild relatives is of crucial importance in both theoretical and practical contexts
The biochemical composition analysis of the Lathyrus green biomass samples revealed about 300 components
In 2013, the acid content went down to 333.77 mg/100 g, and different accessions varied within 215.37–544.24 mg/100 g (Fig. 1)
Summary
Researching the chemical composition of cultivated plants and their wild relatives is of crucial importance in both theoretical and practical contexts. Still vital is the question of seeking new plants that may serve as sources of bioactive compounds with remedial properties, and introducing them into agricultural practice. Lathyrus sativus L., L. pratensis L. and L. tubero sus L. have been most comprehensively studied with regard to their chemical composition and pharmacological characteristics. Biological activity of several chemical components has been analyzed in L. sylvestris L., L. vernus (L.) Bernh. Wide pharmacological demand for peavines is induced by their macro- and microelement composition as well as the presence of flavonoids and a complex set of essential amino acids (Plant Resources of the USSR, 1987, 2011; Zaichikova, 2002a, b). Lathyrus spp. are known as forage plants, outstanding for their high protein content in seed and herbage (Pavlova, 2001; Burlyaeva et al, 2012)
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