PHYTOCHEMICAL VARIATIONS IN THE AERIAL PARTS OF HYPERICUM PERFORATUM L., AT DIFFERENT HARVEST STAGES
Arijeta SHABANI, Arlinda H. ZAJMI, Qail IBRAIMI, Merita DAUTI, Drita Y. HAVZIU, Gjylai ALIJA
Abstract
Hypericum perforatum L., (St. John’s Wort) is a medicinal plant that has been used for treating different kind of conditions right from the past. The conditions used were: treating skin wounds and burns together with managing psychological conditions as depression. This study aims to find out and do a research on what is the content of total phenols, flavonoids and total hypericin in the flowers and leaves of H. perforatum which are gathered at different stages of harvesting the plant itself. What we did is, we tried to analyze what is the concentrations of total phenols, flavonoids and hypericin in the plant material by using spectrophotometric methods: Folin – Ciocalteu reagent for phenols, NaNO₂-AlCl₃-NaOH method for flavonoids and water/tertrahydrofuran solvent system for hypericin. The observation process was done in the content of compounds depending on the plant part (flower or leaf) and the harvest time of the flower itself. We came to the conclusion that the flowers of H. perforatum contain the highest levels of flavonoids and phenols during the flower bud stage, while the highest content of total hypericin was found in the flowers at full bloom. Based on these findings we identified that in order to maximize the accumulation of bioactive compounds it should be done in the time of the floral budding and full blooming stages.
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