Search Results (2)

Podophyllotoxin (PTOX), one of the most important natural medicinal compounds, has anticancer properties. Its effective medicinal derivatives, such as etoposide and teniposide, have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for cancer treatment. This compound is found as a specialized metabolite in the Linum album Kotschy ex Boiss., belonging to the Linaceae family. PTOX is the major aryltetralin lignan resulting from the shikimic acid/phenylpropanoid pathway, and it accumulates in the shoots and roots of L. album. PTOX plays a necessary role in plant defense systems, protecting against abiotic as well as biotic stresses and helping their adaptation to adverse environmental conditions. Therefore, the content of specialized metabolites increases under stress. In this study, the content of PTOX under stressful conditions (potassium deficiency stress at two time points: 12 and 48 h) was examined using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) in a completely randomized design with three replications. The results of HPLC showed that the content of PTOX first decreased after 12 h, while after 48 h of treatment, compared with the control plants, it showed a significant increase, with a value of 135.8 in the shoots. In the roots, the results were consistent with the results of the aerial parts, and the amount increased significantly after 48 h. In general, the results show that L. album, as a suitable natural source for PTOX, has great potential to generate large-scale products for commercial and pharmaceutical purposes. Full article

Linum album (Ky. ex Boiss.) is an important medicinal plant that produces compounds such as the well-known anticancer lignan podophyllotoxin and fatty acids. Despite its high medicinal value, it has not yet been studied in detail under agricultural conditions. This study was conducted to evaluate the morphological, phenological, and physiological responses of six L. album accessions under different levels of water deficit treatments (100%, 75%, 50%, and 25% available water) in pot conditions. Based on the results, some of the morphological characteristics of the response to water deficit were established. Accessions UTLA7, UTLA9, and UTLA10 showed a higher seed yield and dry weight of the vegetative part. There was a substantial difference in the occurrence of phenological stages in the accessions. The maturation process was accelerated in plants under stress conditions, and accession UTLA9 completed its complete growth cycle faster than the other accessions. The physiological responses of the different accessions did not show the same pattern on the basis of the characteristics studied, and significant differences were observed depending on the trait and accession. Among the most important results of this study was the diversity of responses in different accessions. Based on these results, it is recommended that morphological features (such as seed yield per plant, plant height, number of inflorescences per plant, shoot and root dry weight) be used to select tolerant accessions for the desired product. Full article