Ecological-pharmacognostic assessment of quality of bitter wormwood growing in various urban- and agrobiocenosis of Voronezh region

Abstract

An important and little-researched aspect of the effect of human economic activity on medicinal plants is that in response to an increase in anthropogenic load, the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites changes. The purpose of the study was to study the accumulation of biologically active substances in the grass of bitter wormwood, collected in agricultural and urbobiogeocenosis of the Voronezh region, different from the point of view of anthropogenic impact. As part of the study, 51 samples of bitter wormwood grass contain flavonoids in terms of rutin, extractive substances extracted by 70% alcohol and in the most contrasting samples the content of essential oil. All samples meet the requirements of the regulatory documentation for the content of essential oil and flavonoids. It was revealed that in the grass of bitter wormwood collected in agro-biogeocenosis,
the content of flavonoids is on average 2 times higher than in samples collected in natural biocenosis of protected areas, and in raw materials collected in a number of urbobiogeocenosis – 2.7–4 times higher than in samples of control protected areas, which is explained by the biochemical adaptation of the plant to significant Near some manufacturing plants and along highways with high traffic intensity, we selected samples with a flavonoid content reduced relative to other samples, which can be explained by the suppression of the antioxidant system of plants with excessive anthropogenic influence. In terms of the content of extractive substances extracted by 70 % alcohol, two samples of the studied medicinal vegetal raw materials, collected along the railway and in Kalach, do not meet the pharmacopoeic requirements.