Abstract
Extracts from plants of the genus Veronica have been and continue to be used in traditional medicine to treat various diseases throughout the world. Although often considered a weed, many scientific reports demonstrate that these plants are a source of valuable biologically active compounds and their potential for horticulture should be investigated and considered. In this study, free volatile compounds of essential oils (EO) and hydrosols were extracted from two species: Veronica officinalis, which is most commonly used in traditional medicine, and Veronica saturejoides, an endemic plant that could be obtained by cultivation in horticulture. Volatiles were analyzed by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC, GC-MS). The most abundant compounds identified in the EOs were hexadecanoic acid in V. officinalis EO and caryophyllene oxide in V. saturejoides EO. The hydrosols were characterized by a high abundance of caryophyllene oxide in V. saturejoides hydrosol and of p-vinyl guaiacol for V. officinalis hydrosol. The sites where the volatile compounds are synthesized and stored were analyzed using SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy); glandular and non-glandular trichomes were detected on stems, leaves and the calyx. Further, to investigate the activity of the free volatile compounds against pathogens, isolated volatile compounds were tested on the antiphytoviral activity against tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) infection. The hydrosols of both investigated species and EO of V. officinalis showed significant antiphytoviral activity. To further investigate the biological potential of these extracts they were also tested for their antiproliferative and antioxidant activities. The results indicate that these compounds are a valuable source of potential anticancerogenic agents that should be investigated in future studies. The presented results are the first report of hydrosol and EO activity against TMV infection, suggesting that these extracts from Veronica species may be useful as natural-based antiphytoviral agents.
Highlights
Some of our previous studies and studies by other authors describe the activity of plant volatiles as natural antiphytoviral compounds [19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27]. Since this activity of Plantaginaceae family volatiles has not been tested so far, we investigated the antiphytoviral activity of both essential oil and hydrosol of V. officinalis and V. saturejoides, with the aim of increasing the knowledge about the antiphytoviral activity of essential oils and especially hydrosols, which have been very little studied in this regard
The results show that plants treated with hydrosol (H) of V. officinalis and V. saturejoides prior to tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) infection significantly reduced the number of local lesions compared to control plants
The best antiproliferative activity on all three cell lines tested was shown by the essential oil of V. saturejoides
Summary
The genus Veronica of the family Plantaginaceae grows predominantly in temperate Northern Hemisphere regions, with a smaller number of species growing in Southern. Hemisphere regions and in Australia [1,2]. The many species of this plant family, about. 450, show the great ecological adaptability of the genus Veronica. Species of this genus grow in wet and dry habitats, as well as in the marine belt and mountains [3]. (Figure 1b) (common speedwell) and Veronica saturejoides Vis. ssp. Saturejoids (Figure 1a) (savory leafed speedwell) grow on Dinaric The studied species Veronica officinalis L. (Figure 1b) (common speedwell) and Veronica saturejoides Vis. ssp. saturejoids (Figure 1a) (savory leafed speedwell) grow on Dinaric
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