Chemistry for Sustainable Development 16 (2008) 375–381 375 Flavonoid Content in Plants of the Forest-Steppe Zone of West Siberia (Novosibirsk Region) G. I. VYSOCHINA, YU. V. SHINKARENKO, T. A. KUKUSHKINA and I. I. BAYANDINA Central Siberian Botanical Garden, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Ul. Zolotodolinskaya 101, Novosibirsk 630090 (Russia) E-mail: [email protected] (Received March 20, 2008) Abstract The content of flavonoids in 76 plant species of 25 families growing over the territory of the Novosibirsk Reigon was studied. It has been established, that the content of flavonoids in 33 plant species under investigation is higher than 3.0 %. Habitats and times of harvesting are listed for plants promising to be used as the sources of flavonoids. It has been revealed that the maximum amount of flavonoids is contained in the representatives of such families as Asteraceae, Rosaceae, Lamiaceae. Key words: vegetative resources, herbs, flavonoids, West Siberia INTRODUCTION tent of flavonoids were carried out by the re- searchers of Central Siberian Botanical Gar- At the present stage of Siberian productive den (CSBG), SB RAS (Novosibirsk) in 1960– forces development a special consideration is 1980 [10–15] within the framework of complex given to the territorial planning and manage- resource studies for the analysis and rational ment of large economic regions. The plant riches use of the vegetative resources of Siberia. At of Siberia represent extremely valuable and the initial stage of these works a reconnais- almost untouched reserve of raw material for sance inspection was carried out to rate the con- many industries. The studies on wild flora of tent of flavonoids in Siberian plants growing Siberia as a source of high-quality medicinal mainly over the areas of Southern Siberia. Dur- raw material can render a considerable assis- ing the examination of plants growing over the tance in satisfying the demands of the medical territories of Mountain Altai, Khakassia, Say- industry on a state scale [1]. an Mountains and Tyva for the content of fla- Flavonoid-containing plants draw a stead- vonoids, more than 350 plant species belong- fast attention of researchers as a raw material ing to 185 genuses and 54 families of higher for obtaining a wide scope of medical products plants have been studied. exhibiting anti-inflammatory, capillary restor- There are two ways to particularly mobilize ative, choleretic, radioprotective, antineoplas- the vegetative resources. They are either uti- tic, immunomodulatory, etc. actions [2–6]. With- lizing a useful plant as a natural raw material in recent decades much importance is attached or introducing the plant into cultivation [16]. to the antioxidative action of flavonoids and Using data on natural flora of the region and their ability to capture and remove free radi- the methods of experimental knowledge of cals from an organism [7–9]. plants one could solve independent problems in The investigations of herbs growing over the revealing natural sources of highly active me- territory of Siberia for determining the con- dicinal raw material and initial material for se- 376 G. I. VYSOCHINA et al. lection in a particular region. In order to inten- ried out as it follows. An accurately weighed sify the results of an introduction experiment sample of air-dry raw material (~0.5 g) grind- one should select the most valuable initial ma- ed and sifted through a 1 mm mesh sieve was terial persistent within the region [17]. placed into a flask of 100 mL in volume and The cultivation of herbs cannot be relied on extracted exhaustively with 70 % ethyl alco- unlimited increasing in sown areas therefore an hol. The completeness of the extraction was economical use of medicinal raw material should monitored via the reaction with 5%NaOH so- be realized. One of the basic conditions of this lution (until yellow colouring disappeared); the consists in obtaining a raw material with the volume of the filtered joint extract was then maximum content of effective agents. In this measured. Further, 0.1mL of the extract was connection a particular significance is attached put into a graduated test tube; then 0.2mL of to biochemical research of plants including not 2% AlCl3 solution in 96 % ethyl alcohol was only biochemical inventory of fodder, medici- added, the volume was brought up to 5mL nal, technical and other groups of plants, but adding ethanol of the same concentration. For also forecasting rational ways of vegetative re- the reference, to 0.1mL of the extract were sources consumption. The important stage of added 1–2 drops of 30% acetic acid and the these studies consists in choosing the plants prom- volume was then brought up to 5mL. Solutions ising from the standpoint of the further pro- were stirred; the optical density (absorbance) found investigation. In order to mobilize useful value was measured in 40 min for the solution plants of the region the organization of biochem- with aluminium chloride with the help of a SF- ical research and the creation of a Databank 26 spectrophotometer at the wavelength of covering all the useful plants of the region are 415nm using a cell with 1 cm layer thickness. of most importance. The presence of compre- For comparison used a solution with an acid. hensive information concerning every plant spe- The total content of flavonoids X (percent- cies would accelerate involving these species in age with respect to the mass of air-dry raw various fields of the national economy [18, 19]. material) was determined as 6 The present work is aimed at revealing wild Õ = YV1V2100/(MV3 × 10 ) plants of the forest-steppe zone of West Siberia Here Y is the content of flavonoids in 1 mL of (within the Novosibirsk Region) rich in the solution under investigation, determined flavonoids, at the subsequent studies on the according to the calibration curve plotted for conditions promoting the accumulation of these rutin, µg; V1 is the extract volume, mL; V2 is substances as well as at establishing the laws the volume of dilution, mL; V3 is the extract of flavonoid accumulation during the process volume for the analysis, mL; M is the mass of of plants growth and development. air-dry raw material, g. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The choice of plant species for the investi- According to the data presented in [21], as gation of flavonoid content was made taking much as 1333 plant species of 123 families grow into account their natural resource (the most over the territory of the Novosibirsk Region. We widespread species were chosen) as well as the have studied 5.7 % of total amount of plant spe- data from the literature concerning medicinal cies. Figure 1 displays data concerning the con- properties of the plants. The species examined tent flavonoids in 76 plant species of 25 families. for the content of flavonoids were sampled once. The main task while studying and mobilizing Quantitative determination of flavonoids was the gene pool consists in the preservation of bio- carried out using the technique described in [20], morphological variety with respect to each spe- with the use of a complexation reaction of fla- cies. For some plant species the content of fla- vonoids with aluminium chloride. vonoids was determined using the material sam- The spectrophotometric determination of the pled within various habitats of the plants. Figure1 total content of flavonoids in leaves was car- displays only maximal values of the content FLAVONOID CONTENT IN PLANTS OF THE WEST-SIBERIAN FOREST-STEPPE ZONE 377 Fig. 1. Content of flavonoids in the plants of the forest-steppe zone of West Siberia (Novosibirsk Region). 378 G. I. VYSOCHINA et al. TABLE 1 Location of flavonoid-containing plant cenopopulations of the West-Siberian forest-steppe zone (Novosibirsk Region) SpeciesFamilyDistrict, harvesting locationHarvestingContent, % date Serratula coronata L.ÀsteraceaeToguchin District, on the outskirts17.07.059.9 of the Dergausovo village, forb meadow Lysimachia vulgaris L.PrimulaceaeUbinka District, on the outskirts14.07.056.9 of the Aleksandro-Nevskoe village; waterlogged ditch Origanum vulgare L.LamiaceaeKargat District, on the outskirts15.07.056.3 of the Filino village; forb meadow Glycyrrhiza uralensis FischerFabaceaeKarasuk District, on the outskirts09.07.055.8 of the Chernokur’ya village, cereal- wermuth steppe Scutellaria hastifolia L.LamiaceaeToguchin District, Bugotak village,19.07.055.8 the Inya riverside, floodplain meadow Chamerion angustifolium OnagraceaeKochenevo District, route Ì-51,15.07.055.3 (L.) Holub.91km from Novosibirsk, forb meadow Alchemilla vulgaris L.RosaceaeToguchin District, Bugotak village,19.07.055.2 the Inya riverside, floodplain meadow Filipendula ulmaria RosaceaeToguchin District, route Novosibirsk–18.07.055.2 (L.) Maxim.Leninsk-Kuznetsk, 86 km from Novosibirsk, tall-grass meadow Filipendula stepposa Juz.RosaceaeKochki District, on the outskirts08.07.055.0 of the Reshety village, the Karasuk riverside, cereal-wermuth steppe Lactuca tatarica (L.) C.A. Mey AsteraceaeToguchin District, Bugotak village, 19.07.054.8 the Inya riverside, floodplain meadow Tanacetum vulgare L.AsteraceaeKochki District, on the outskirts08.07.054.7 of the Reshety village, the Karasuk riverside, cereal-wermuth steppe Parnassia palustris L.ParnassiaceaeToguchin District, Gremyachinskiy village,18.07.054.6 intermittent hummocky swamp in a birch forest Pimpinella saxifrage L.ApiaceaeChulym District, on the outskirts15.07.054.6 of the Kokoshino village, forb meadow Sanquisorba officinalis