Secondary metabolites of the choosen genus iris species

Abstract

Genus Iris contains more than 260 species which are mostly distributed across the North Hemisphere. Irises are mainly used as the ornamental plants, due to their colourful flowers, or in the perfume industry, due to their violet like fragrance, but lot of iris species were also used in many part of the worlds as medicinal plants for healing of a wide spectre of diseases. Nowadays the botanical and biochemical research bring new knowledge about chemical compounds in roots, leaves and flowers of the iris species, about their chemical content and possible medicinal usage. Due to this researches are Irises plants rich in content of the secondary metabolites. The most common secondary metabolites are flavonoids and isoflavonoids. The second most common group of secondary metabolites are flavones, quinones and xanthones. This review brings together results of the iris research in last few decades, putting together the information about the secondary metabolites research and chemical content of iris plants. Some clinical studies show positive results in usage of the chemical compounds obtained from various iris species in the treatment of cancer, or against the bacterial and viral infections.