STUDYING MAHONIA AQUIFOLIUM (PURSH) NUTT., INTRODUCED IN GEORGIA, FOR THE CONTENT OF ALKALOIDS AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF MICROSTRUCTURAL DIAGNOSTIC SIGNS OF THE PLANT

Abstract

The research aimed to investigate qualitative and quantitative composition of alkaloids from M. aquifolium (Pursh) Nutt. (fam. Berberidaceae), as well as to determine the authenticity of raw materials on the basis of microstructural diagnostic features. Qualitative TLC and GС /MS analysis of substances obtained by liquid-liquid extraction from above- and underground vegetative organs of Mahonia aquifolium (Pursh) Nutt, in the presence of reference compounds, identified representatives of the protoberberine, aporphine and bis-benzylisoquinoline groups of biologically active alkaloids.Study of the microstructural peculiarities of the M. aquifolium revealed the following: in the central cylinder of the root of M. aquifolium, the phloem is perixilar, the wood armature is thick-walled, the conducting vessels are chaotically scattered; roots covered with velamen cells, the conducting tissue is represented by collateral type bundles. Rectilinear pavement cells of the shoot epidermis are stitched; the stomata are complex, stomata satellites are tetrasect, less often hexasect; in the conducting system the phloem is compressed, while the xylem is radial and consists of spiral, porous and roundly thickened vessels; the radial beams are multilayered. M. aquifolium leaf is bifacial, hypostomatic, with the mesophyll of dorsoventral structure; the basal cells of the adaxial and abaxial epidermis of the leaf are nonstitched, curvilinear, curved type; stomata of the anomocytic type; collateral conductive bundles are embedded into mechanical tissue. In the midvein of the leaf differentiated collateral vascular bundles are surrounded by mechanical elements.