Research in phenolic compounds in leaves of non-pharmacopoeial species of the genus Salvia from Ukrainian flora

Abstract

The search for new sources of biologically active substances of phenolic nature is a topic task of the modern pharmaceutical industry and science to expand the domestic raw material base of medicinal plants and to create new medicines based on them. The purpose of the research is to study the composition of phenolic compounds of three non-pharmacopoeial species of the genus Salvia : S. grandiflora , S. pratensis and S. verticillata , in comparing with S. officinalis , to establish the perspective ones for using in pharmaceutical and medical practice. Materials and methods. The qualitative composition and quantitative content of phenolic compounds were determined by HPLC using a Shimadzu LC20 Prominence chromatograph. The quantitative determination of phenolic compounds was also performed by the spectrophotometric method on an Evolution 60S spectrophotometer (USA) at the appropriate wavelength. Results. The quantitative content of 17 phenolic substances in leaves of genus Salvia representatives was determined. 6 of those are substances of flavonoid nature, 3 are hydroxycinnamic acids and 8 are derivatives of coffeic acid. It was found that the highest content of hydroxycinnamic acids is characteristic of leaves of S. grandiflora (4.49 mg/g, which is 357.62 % higher than in the pharmacopoeial species of S . officinalis (1.26 mg/g), the highest content of flavonoid compounds is characteristic of S. verticillata leaves (7.70 mg/g, which is 57.46 % more than in the pharmacopoeial species of S. officinalis (4.89 mg/g) and the highest content of the sum of phenolic compounds is characteristic of S. verticillata leaves (9.50 mg/g, which is 37.18 % more than in the pharmacopoeial species of S . officinalis (6.92 mg/g). Conclusions. HPLC and spectrophotometric methods demonstrate that the highest content of flavonoids is characteristic of leaves of S. verticillata , hydroxycinnamic acids – S. grandiflora. The highest content of the sum of all detected compounds of phenolic nature is characteristic of S. verticillata leaves. This indicates the prospect of using non-pharmacopoeial representatives of the genus Salvia from Ukrainian flora as sources of phenolic compounds to expand the domestic raw material base of medicinal plants and to create new medicines based on them.