Farhang et al, Journal of Herbal Drugs, Vol. 6, No. 4: 227-233, 2016 Journal of Herbal Drug journal homepage: www.jhd.iaushk.ac.ir Chemical compositions of the essential oil of Gundelia tournefortii L. (Asteraceae) from Central Zagros, Iran Hamid Reza Farhang1, Mohammad Reza Vahabi1*, Ali Reza Allafchian2 1Department of Natural Resources, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran; 2 Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials Institute, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran; * Email:[email protected] ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Background & Aim: Gundelia tournefortii L. (Tumbleweed) has been Type: Original Research identified as one of the well-known and widely distributed plants with Topic: Medicinal Plants various applications in some of Asian and North African countries. It Received January 13th 2015 belongs to the (Asteraceae) family and grows in the Middle East particularly in the temperate, mountainous and semi desert areas of Accepted April 7th 2015 countries such as Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Turkmenistan Key words: and some regions of Azerbaijan and Armenia. The aim of this study was to identify of the chemical components of G.Tournefortii L. in some of its Smirnovia iranica sabeti habitats into Central Zagros area, Iran. Central Zagros Experimental: In this regard, G. tournefortii L. was collected from some of its natural habitats in the mentioned area and air dried. The essential oil Essential oil of the plant was isolated by hydro-distillation with a yield of 0.8 % (v/w). GC-MS Also, the chemical compositions of volatile oil were analyzed using GC- MS. Gundelia tournefortii Results & Discussion: The results indicated that major components Habitat were palmitic acid (12.48 %), lauric acid (10.59 %), alpha ionene (6.68 %), Iran myristic acid (4.45 %), 1-hexadecanol, 2-methyl (3.61 %), phytol (3.6 %), and beta turmerone (3.4 %). Industrial and practical recommendations: Gundelia tournefortii L. is known as a plants with many therapeutic properties especially in traditional and contemporary medicine in the world. Also, this plant has a useful nutritional solute such as potassium and calcium. It is a well-known medicinal plant native to some 1. Introduction countries of middle east with temperate, mountainous and semi desert areas, particularly Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Gundelia tournefortii L. is from the Asteraceae family. Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Azerbaijan, Armenia and The Asteraceae is the greatest family of flowering Turkmenistan (Coruh et al., 2007). All parts of this plants with about 900 genera and more than 13000 plant are widely used in the mentioned countries; for species. It is one of the important remedial plants example, the young and still undeveloped areal parts, which can be easily found in some regions of Iran. This especially flower buds, are sold in the local fairs; it is plant is typically known as tumbleweed, akoub and therefore, one of the ordered items (Lev Yadun and kanger are English, Arabic and Turkish, respectively. Abbo, 1999). The leaves and stems of this plant are 227 Farhang et al, Journal of Herbal Drugs, Vol. 6, No. 4: 227-233, 2016 used as food ingredients in soups and salads (Ertog, Gundelia tournefortii L. in the mentioned countries, 2000; Lev Yadun and Abbo, 1999). In some parts of using various experimental techniques (Erciyes et al., Turkey, the fruits of Gundelia tournefortii L. are 1989; Halabi et al., 2005; Karabulut et al., 2006; treated with vinegar or lemon and salt and used as a Matthaus and Ozkan, 2011 and Haghi et al., 2011). In garnish (Dogan et al., 2004). In folk medicine, all these studies miscellaneous chemical compositions Gundelia tournefortii L. has advantages as some kind were identified and the amount of the yields of of herbal medicine. These advantages incloud treatment essential oils was varied. The majority of the identified of diseases like vitiligo, chest pain, heart stroke, compounds, in terms of molecular structure, belong to diabetes, splenomegaly, chewedness, cuts, gastric pain, specified chemical functional groups; nevertheless, as diarrhea, bronchitis, inflammations, kidney problems the mentioned plant is situated in various areas of the and also, especially, the use of it as effective diuretics world, factors such as the presence, absence and the (Sezik et al., 2001; Halabi et al., 2005; Jarald et al., amount of its constituent are different. The most 2008; Sarper et al., 2009; Matthaus and Ozkan, 2011). important identified combinations are in groups such as The Stem of Gundelia tournefortii L. is used in various (terpenoieds, hydrocarbons, alcohols, acids, esters, parts of Iran as an occasional food with different usages phenols). The purpose of the current study was to and as a traditional therapy too. According to teachings identify all chemical compositions of the essential oil of the Persian folk medicine, the stem of the mentioned of Gundelia tournefortii L. in central Zagros area, Iran; plant, can serve as an effective therapeutic by acting as for the first time. hepatoprotective and blood purifier (Jamshidzadeh et al., 2005; Haghi et al., 2011). It is a perennial spiny 2. Materials and Methods plant collected at the end of vegetative phase and also dried as some kind of winter fodder for some ruminant 2.1. Plant Material animals such as ram, ewe, goat and camel in the Gundelia tournefortii L. (Asteraceae) is a perennial countries mentioned (Kaplan et al., 1995; Kamalak et spiny native herb plant grown extensively in Iran, al., 2005). In the flora Iranica, just Gundelia between the months of March and April. Samples of G. tournefortii L. is used (Rechinger, 1989). Several years tournefortii Arial parts consisted of the leaves, stems ago in Armenia two new taxa well defined localities of and flower buds collected in March, 2014 (in one of its Gundelia namely G. aragatsi and G. aragatsi ssp. have natural habitat in central Zagros, Iran), during the been proposed with different distribution areas, flower flowering period and the vegetative phase. The shapes, Inflorescence and pollinators (Vitek and Jarvis, taxonomic identity of the plant was confirmed by 2007). In the contemporary medicine, especially in the comparing the collected voucher specimen with that of current decade, some researchers have investigated the the known identity available in the herbarium of the wide range of the pharmacological properties of Department of Natural Resources, Isfahan University Gundelia tournefortii L. According to some studies, it of Technology, Iran (Fig. 1). has various advantages along with characteristics such as antibacterial activity, inflammatory activity, 2.2. Plant material antiplatelet activity, hypolipemic activity (Aburjai et The aerial parts of the plant (1000 g) were dried in a al., 2001; Darwish and Aburjai, 2010; Oryan et al., standard situation without light, infection and humidity; 2011; Halabi et al., 2005; Sharaf et al., 2004; and Mavi also, the incomplete and immature samples were et al., 2011). In addition, the antioxidant activity of separated. They were powdered using a mill (Model Gundelia tournefortii L. has been investigated via some PX-MFC90D) with the mesh size of 1mm for the researchers, demonstrating that seeds antioxidant following analysis. The resultant powder had low capacity is really higher than the other parts of this density too. Meanwhile, the sampling area was located plant, because its seeds contain a high amount of at an altitude of 2300 m above the sea level. The mean substances such as tocopherols, fatty acids and sterols annual rainfall and temperature were 414 mm and 10.8 (Coruh et al., 2007; Tawaha et al., 2007; Matthaus and ˚C respectively. Ozkan, 2011). There are several studies regarding the evaluation of phytochemical characteristics of 2.3. Isolation of the essential oils 228 Farhang et al, Journal of Herbal Drugs, Vol. 6, No. 4: 227-233, 2016 100 g of air dried aerial parts of Gundelia 2.4. Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC- tournefortii L. was separated for hydro-distillation MS) analysis using a Clevenger-type apparatus (European The oils were analyzed by GC-MS, using Agilent pharmacopeia, 1998) .The distillation was done for 5 Technologies GC-MS 7890A (built on the industry- hours. The essential oil obtained was kept in a dark leading Agilent GC platform, USA) in the central glass vial at 4˚ C for further examination. laboratory of Isfahan University of Technology, Iran. The system contained a mass detector with a steady phase made of silica gel and the HP-5 MS column (30 m × 0.25 mm ID, 0.25 μm film thickness) and helium along with the purity of (% 99.999) as the carrier gas. The injector temperature was set at 220 ˚C for 5 minutes with a split ratio of 1:10. A 1 μl and a volume of 1000 ppm of the obtained oil solution in a GC grade (n-hexane) were injected. To separate different oil components, a linear temperature program was adapted as described here: at first, the column was kept at 50 ˚C for 2 minutes, ramped at a rate of 10 ˚C/min to 150 ˚C, and held isothermal for 5 minutes; then the ramp of 20 ˚C/min was applied up to 220 ˚C and held isothermal for 10 minutes. The mass spectrometry detector was taken at 70 eV and the mass range was 40-400 m/z. Component identification was done using their recorded spectra by utilizing the spectrometric electronics libraries provided by the instrument software (Wiley, 1994; Adams, 2001). Also, the Fig. 1. Gundelia tournefortii L. Flowering Stage. identified components of the essential oil were recorded. 3. Results and discussion The yield of the essential oil of Gundelia tournefortii L. was recorded to be 0.8 % (v/w). The results of analysis are presented in table 1. In this research, the 70 compounds belonged to six main chemical groups including (terpenes, hydrocarbons, alcohols, acids, esters, phenols) which were identified in Gundelia tournefortii L.