Farshid Rezaei
1, Rashid Jamei
1*, Reza Heidari
11 Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Urmia, West Azerbaijan, Iran.
Abstract
Purpose: The aim of the present
study was to investigate the chemical properties of wild Tagetes minuta
L. (family Astreacea) collected from Northern Iran during the flowering
period concerning the chemical combination of the essential oil along with its
antioxidant properties and composition of fatty acids.
Methods: The essential oil of the plant was extracted by a
Clevenger approach and analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (Capillary HP-5ms GC/MS Column). Fatty
acid contents of this species as a result of hexane extraction were analyzed by
means of gas chromatography (GC-FID) while their phenolic contents were
analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC-UV). In this research
also the total polyphenolic (TPC) and total flavonoid (TFC) content was
determined spectrophotometrically while the antioxidant activity was evaluated
using the DPPH (2,2'-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) bleaching method.
Results: GC/MS analysis of the essential oil identified
monoterpenoid fractions (52.13%) as the main components and among them
dihydrotagetone (23.44%) and spathulenol (10.56%) were the predominant
compounds. The evaluation of fatty acid content revealed that saturated acids
were prevailing compounds and the major components are: palmitic (30.74±0.4%)
and capric (24.15±0.5%) acids. Chromatographic separation of its phenolic
contents indicated that this herb contain sinapic acid derivatives rather than
hydroxybenzoic acid derivatives. Also the essential oil showed an effective
antioxidant capacity (TPC=153.27±0.9 mg/g, TFC=63.79±0.1 mg/g, IC50
= 29.31±0.8 µg/ml).
Conclusion: The results proved that the plant could be used
for nutritional and pharmaceutical purposes.