A comparative study on some secondary metabolites of male and female stems of Ephedra major Host

Ephedra, belonging to the Ephedraceae family of gymnosperms, is a dioecious shrub, which has different medicinal properties. The purpose of this study was to compare some secondary metabolites of male and female stems of Ephedra major during August to October months. The male and female samples were collected from Bojnoord highlands and then were dried. The methanolic extract was separated by solvent method and total alkaloid, ephedrine, total phenol, total flavonoid and tannin levels were measured in collected samples. The measurement of total alkaloid and ephedrine content showed significant difference between male and female stems during different months. The highest amount of total alkaloid was obtained in samples collected from male stem during October month. While, the highest level of ephedrine was observed in samples collected in both male and female stems during August month. The data from HPLC analysis showed that ephedrine content ranged from 1.5 to 1.99 mg/g dry weight. Meanwhile, total phenol, total flavonoid and total tannin content ranged from 31.5-41.13, 3.51-5.81 and 15.57-24.46 mg/g dry weight, respectively. The obtained results revealed that there was significant difference between male and female stems in total phenol just in October, total flavonoid in September and October, and total tannin in August and September.