INFLUENCE OF SPECIES COMPOSITION ON TOTAL PHENOLIC CONTENT AND ANTIOXIDANT PROPERTIES OF HERBA ALCHEMILLAE

摘要

Commercial product Herba Alchemillae is widely used in herbal medicine but it includes aerial parts of various species due to difficulties in their identification by herbalists. The present study determined the effect of Alchemilla species compositionand the geographical distribution of species on total phenolic content and antioxidant activity of Herba Alchemillae. For that purpose a comparative analyzes of 22 samples of plant material collected from natural populations in 5 fioristic regions of Bulgaria and 21 samples of the 8 common Alchemilla species was performed. The results showed that the content of total phenols and antioxidant activity depends mainly on the species composition and the quantitative participation of the species in plant materials. The study demonstrated greater percentage participation in Herba Alchemillae of species belonging to series Vulgares. All examined samples exhibited strong antioxidant activity, which is important from a practical point of view.