مهدی زارعی محمد آباد

Eryngium caucasicum from the Apiaceae family, is native to the northern regions of Iran and has significant medicinal and nutritional properties. This paper has provided detailed morpho-anatomical characteristics of the leaves, peduncles, leaf tail, stem, and roots of Eryngium caucasicum by bright-field light microscopy. Also, the amount of phenol, flavonoid, and antioxidant activity with a spectrophotometer and the analysis of essential compounds of the aerial part with GC and GCMS have been presented. Morpho-anatomical features include the dicot-like leaves with palmate venation, isolateral mesophyll with palisade tissue on the upper and lower regions of the leaf, and much reduced spongy parenchyma; characteristic arrangement of the mechanical collenchyma tissue, especially in leaves; and characteristic wrinkles in the leaf cuticle. The stem and peduncle with longitudinal ribs contain collenchyma; there is a presence of aerenchyma in the peduncle and root; calcium oxalate druses and secretory channels in all the studied plant parts; and an absence of sclerenchyma in all investigated parts of the plant. The aerial parts of E. caucasicum had 37% essential oil, 53.9 mg of flavonoids per gram of dry matter, 48.79 mg per gram of dry matter, and 62.97 percent antioxidant activity. The main compounds in the essential oil of the aerial part include Piperitone (48.78%), ß-Sesquiphellandrene (12.64%), and (Z)-Falcarinol (7.85%), and (Z) ß-Farnesene (6.36 percent).

Eryngium caucasicum is one of the important endemic plants in the northern provinces of Iran. Few studies have been done in relation to its germination. Studying its domestication and propagation can play an important role in preserving and commercializing. To evaluate seed germination and plantlet vigor of Eryngium caucasicum, a laboratory experiment was conducted as factorial based on a completely randomized design in 3 replications with two factors, temperature (5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 °C) and stratification (0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 weeks). According to morphological studies, the thousand seed weight of Eryngium small seeds was estimated 1.45 g and a moisture content of 24%. The average of flowers per plant is 11.3 and the average of seeds per fruit is 56. The highest germination percentage (74.6), germination rate (1.25), germination uniformity (0.21), and seed vigor (2.2) are shown at 15°C without stratification. The highest germination energy and the shortest germination time (15.26) were observed in 20°C without stratification (64), which is not significantly different from the treatment of 15°C (63.3). In general, the results of the experiment showed that Eryngium seeds germinate at temperatures between 15 and 25 °C, and no germination was observed at temperatures of 5, 10, and 30 °C, and the best temperature for Eryngium germination is 15 °C without stratification.