Study of fat and organic acids in feverfew cultivars White Gem and Phlora Pleno herb

Abstract

Topicality. The search for new plant sources of carboxylic acids is an actual issue of pharmaceutical science. One of the promising species of the Aster family is the feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium (L.) Schultz Bip.). Previously, we conducted a comprehensive phytochemical study of this species, which revealed a widely represented chemical composition. Currently, in order to expand the raw material base, the study of the feverfew cultivars White Gem and Phlora Pleno, which are widely cultivated in Ukraine, is promising. Therefore, the study of the qualitative composition and quantitative content of carboxylic acids in the feverfew cultivars White Gem and Phlora Pleno is actual.Aim. To determinate the qualitative composition and quantitative content of fatty and organic acids in the feverfew cultivars White Gem and Phlora Pleno.Materials and methods. The object of the study was the feverfew cultivars White Gem and Phlora Pleno herb, which was grown on the plots of the National Botanical Garden. M. M. Grishka of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kharkiv, 2019). The study has been performed by chromato-mass spectrometry on a chromatograph Agilent Technologies 6890N with mass spectrometric detector 5973 (Agilent Technologies, USA).Results and discussion. About 35 carboxylic acids were detected and identified in the studied cultivars. The total content of carboxylic acids in the cultivar Phlora Pleno was 22960.52 mg/kg, in the cultivar White Gem – 24312.51 mg/kg, respectively. Citric acid was the largest in the variety ‘White Gem’ and amounted to 7103.71 mg/kg (29.2 %), which was 2-2.5 times more than in the variety Phlora Pleno (3645.67 mg/kg). The highest content of unsaturated acids was observed in the variety Phlora Pleno – 37.1 %, which is a significant advantage of this variety, and in the variety White Gem was almost 3.2 times less and amounted to 11.7 %. Phlora Pleno has a significant linoleic acid content (17.5 %). Among the aromatic carboxylic acids identified in the cultivars, p-coumaric, vanillic and benzoic acids were the most abundant.Conclusions. For the first time chromato-mass spectrometric determination of carboxylic acids in the feverfew cultivars Phlora Pleno and White Gem collected in Ukraine was performed. the dominant compounds were in the Phlora Pleno cultivar: linoleic, citric and oleic acids. The White Gem cultivar contained the largest amount of citric, oxalic and malonic acids. The obtained results testify to the widely presented profile of organic and fatty acids in the feverfew cultivars and the prospects of their further comprehensive study in order to create herbal medicines with antioxidant, antimicrobial and hypoglycemic activities.