Study on the composition of fatty and organic acids of the feverfew herb (Tanacetum Parthenium (L.) Schultz Bip.)

Abstract

In recent years, herbal medicines have become increasingly popular for the treatment of many diseases because they have a complex and multifactorial influence on the body. Fatty and organic acids are important groups of biologically active substances for the improvement of many pathological human’s conditions. Feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium (L.) Schultz Bip.) is a promising source of biologically active substances with many years of success in medicine and insufficiently studied chemical composition. The analysis of fatty and organic acids is one of the directions of our comprehensive study of the feverfew herb grown in Ukraine.
 The aim of the work was to conduct a study of the qualitative composition and quantitative content of fatty and organic acids in the feverfew herb grown in Ukraine.
 For the study, we used the feverfew herb, which was grown in the scientific fields of the Botanical Garden of the National University of Ukraine (2019). The studies were carried out by a gas chromatography-mass spectrometric method on an Agilent Technologies 6890N chromatograph with a 5973 mass spectrometric detector.
 35 carboxylic acids were found and identified in the samples. Among them 21 acids are saturated, 5 are unsaturated and 9 are aromatic. The total content of carboxylic acids in feverfew herb was 26.54 mg/g. Among the identified fatty and organic acids in the feverfew herb the greatest amount of the following acids was observed: succinic (4.89 mg/g), levulinic (4.34 mg/g), citric (2.73 mg/g), palmitic (2.15 mg/g), linoleic (1.71 mg/g), oxalic (1.53 mg/g) and linolenic (1.07 mg/g) acids. Among the aromatic acids in the feverfew herb the dominant compounds were p-coumaric (2.4%), benzoic (1.89%) and ferulic (1.40%).
 For the first time, a chromatography-mass spectrometric determination of the qualitative composition and quantitative content of organic and fatty acids in feverfew herb collected in Ukraine was carried out. The data obtained indicate a varied composition and rich content of acids in domestic raw materials and will be used to create medicines based on the feverfew herb.