The study of volatile compounds of the raw material of immortelle (Helichrysum bracteatum)

Abstract

Topicality. Plants during their life cycle synthesize, accumulate and release volatile compounds into the environment. Volatile compounds are substances that are heterogeneous in structure and chemical properties, and belong to different classes of compounds. These substances can have saturated and unsaturated, linear and branched chains and cyclic fragments. They can also contain various functional groups: hydroxyl, ether, carboxyl, etc. Substances of the terpenes class occupy a special place among volatile compounds. Many substances related to volatile compounds are commercially important. This fact determines the commercial value of any plant and the prospects of its pharmacognostic research. The study of the composition of volatile compounds will allow us to assess the prospects of further study of a particular plant. With the steadily increasing demand of the pharmaceutical industry for the medicinal plant raw material, and the need to search for new medicinal products based on medicinal plants, special attention should be paid to plants that have a widely represented raw material base. Immortelle (Helichrysum Bracteatum) is such a promising plant. The preliminary phytochemical studies have found that the raw material of immortelle has a diverse composition of biologically active substances.

Aim. To study the composition of volatile compounds of immortelle herb and flowers.

Materials and methods. As the study object the crushed raw of immortelle was used. The study of volatile compounds was performed on an Agilent 6890N/5973 inert chromatography-mass spectrometric system (Agilent Technologies, USA); the carrier gas was helium.

Results and discussion. As a result of the study conducted, 26 volatile compounds were identified in the herb of immortelle, 39 compounds in the flowers of immortelle. Identification was carried out using the mass spectra library NIST 02, WILEY 2007, as well as AMDIS and NIST identification programs. When determining the share of each of the substances identified in the total amount of volatile compounds it was found that the main volatile compounds in the herb of immortelle were n-hexadecanoic acid (44.48 %), phytol (13.71 %), 9.12-octadecanoic acid (11.21 %) and decamethyltetrasiloxane (8.55 %). The main volatile compounds in the flowers were n-hexadecanoic acid (43.83 %), 9.12-octadecanoic acid (19.52 %), the methyl ester of 7.10.13-hexadecatrienoic acid (8.85 %) and tetradecanoic acid (6.10 %). The remaining compounds identified were in significantly smaller amounts. Their share was 22.05 % in the herb, and 21.70 % in the flowers.

Conclusions. For the first time, the study of the qualitative composition of volatile compounds in the herb and flowers of immortelle has been conducted using gas chromatography with mass spectrometric detection. The results of the study of volatile compounds of the raw material of immortelle, as well as according to the studies conducted earlier on the content of substances of other classes, indicate the prospect of further research of immortelle as an object for the development of new drugs.