a. sonboli

Feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium (L.) Schults-bip.) is a perennial medicinal plant from Asteraceae family and a rich source of sesquiterpene lactone parthenolide with anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-spasm, and especially anti-migraine properties. In this study, the aerial parts of five wild populations of this plant were harvested from Mazandaran (Marzanabad, Siah Bisheh, and Valiabad) and Tehran (Ahar and Gachsar) provinces at full flowering stage in 2020 to evaluate their morphological traits and parthenolide content. The results showed a significant difference at 1% probability level among the studied populations for all the traits. The highest plant height (130 cm), flower dry weight (8.60 g.plant-1), and parthenolide content (0.33 mg.g-1 dry weight) were observed in Gachsar, Siah Bisheh, and Marzanabad populations, respectively. Parthenolide content correlated with leaf length, number of lateral branches, and crown diameter negatively and with number of capitols positively and significantly at 5% probability level. Cluster analysis put the feverfew populations in two main groups. Principal coordinate analysis showed that the first three factors could explain 93.06% of the total variance. Overall, the results indicated the existence of high diversity in feverfew populations for use in breeding programs and cultivation and domestication of this species.

In this study, DIN 34CrAlNi7 Nitriding steel in two states before and after nitriding, were welded by tungsten-gas arc welding process using two types of fillers (ER309L and ER312). The aim of this research was to investigate the best conditions for welding (before or after nitriding) and also to choose the best filler metal. The microstructure of the joint was examined using an optical microscope. A tensile strength test was also used to evaluate the mechanical properties. Fracture surfaces were also studied using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). According to the results Welding of these steels with ER309L filler is allowed only in the pre-nitriding state. If the base metal is nitriding, due to microstructural changes in the weld metal, filler metal ER309L cannot be used. However, the results of samples welded with ER312 filler metal show that if the base metal mixing percentage is less than 30%, this filler can be used for welding base metals in both before and after nitriding.

Medicinal plants play a significant role in preventing and treating diseases due to their traditional uses.

The aim of the study was to isolate, purify and identify phytochemicals from the n-hexane extract of Teucrium hircanicum L. roots and evaluate the antioxidant activity of the extract and its purified compounds.

The n-hexane extract (2.27 g) was extracted from the roots of this plant. The extract was fractionated by column chromatography with normal phase by eluting with n-hexane-EtOAc and following with EtOAc-Methanol. Fractions with similar phytochemical fingerprints combined to produce 23 main fractions. Final purification was carried out by preparative reversed-phase HPLC-UV. The structures of isolated were secured by different spectroscopic methods such as 1D, 2D NMR, and mass spectroscopy methods and comparing of these data with literature reported values. The antioxidant activity of the n-hexane extract of T. hircanicum roots and its purified diterpenoids was evaluated in DPPH assay and radical scavenging activity was calculated.

Extraction and isolation methods were used to purify three rearranged abietane-type diterpenoids villosin A (1), teuvincenone B (2) and 5, 8, 11, 13, 15-abietapentaen-7-one (3), a phenethyl ester namely 4-hydroxyphenethyl pentacosanoate (4) and one sterol namely 22-dehydroclerosterol (5).

The n-hexane extract from roots of T. hircanicum and three rearranged abietane type diterpenoids were showed good antioxidant activities ranged from 3.5-4.3 μg/ml compared with the reference value (BHT = 16.5 μg/ml).

Betulinic acid (BA), oleanolic acid (OA) and ursolic acid (UA) are well-known pentacyclic triterpenoids (PTs), which are produced by plants. They possess a variety of beneficial effects including anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective, antitumor, anti-HIV, antimicrobial, gastroprotective, and antihyperlipidemic activities. In the present study, quantitative determination of these compounds was simultaneously carried out in some Thymus species native to Iran i.e. T. daenensis, T. pubescens, T. persicus and T. caramanicus.

Lyophilized and powdered plant material (1.0 g) was drenched in MeOH and immediately sonicated at room temperature. The methanol extract was further separated into organic and aqueous layers. The organic layer was dissolved in HPLC grade methanol, filtered and analyzed by reverse-phase HPLC.

The maximum content of BA, OA and UA were determined in the aerial parts of T. persicus as856.9, 480.6 and 941.7 mg per 100 g dry weight (DW) of plant, respectively while the other Thymus species had an almost negligible amount of these compounds.

Results showed that the aerial parts of T. persicus could be a considerable source of these PTs which might be attractive for future phytochemical and biological investigations according to importance of their health benefits.

Lamiaceae members have long been used in Iranian Traditional Medicine (ITM) for their various medicinal properties. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the antioxidant capacity and antimicrobial activity as well as the total phenolic content (TPC) of the various extracts and fractions of two Iranian endemic Micromeria (M. persica and M. hedgei).

Plant materials were extracted with methanol by maceration for 24 h. Then, the methanol extract (ME) was further fractionated to obtain the chloroform (M-C) and water (M-W) fractions. The antimicrobial activity was investigated against seven Gram-positive and -negative bacteria and three fungi. Antioxidant activity was evaluated by DPPH method and the data were compared with their total phenolic contents.

The nonpolar sub fractions (M-C) of both plants were active against pathogens especially Staphylococcus epidermidis and Bacillus subtilis with equal MIC values of3.75 and 7.5 mg/mL, respectively. Antioxidant activity evaluation showed that the polar fractions of both Micromeria species were stronger than nonpolar fractions, while the more considerable effect was observed for the water soluble fraction of the extract for M. hedgei with IC50 value of 59.1 µg/mL in comparison to M. persica (IC50 = 76.3 µg/mL). The highest gallic acid equivalent (GAE) total phenolic contents was found to be 263.5 ± 1.5 and 256.3 ± 3.1 mg/g dry weight for M-W extracts of M. hedgei and M. persica, respectively.

The results indicated that the two species might be suggested as new potential sources of natural antioxidant and antimicrobial agents.

Oxidative stress is implicated in the neuronal damage associated with Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, amyotropic lateral sclerosis and cerebral ischemic stroke. The present work was designed to establish the neuroprotective effects of Salvia aristata extract on H2O2-induced apoptosis in human dopaminergic SH-SY5Y cells.

The total phenol and flavonoids contents of the plant extracts were quantified by colorimetric methods. The antioxidant activity was assessed using DPPH free radicals scavenging activity assay, and the neuroprotective effect on H2O2-induced oxidative stress was also investigated using human dopaminergic SH-SY5Y cells by MTT assay and western blotting techniques.

The highest scavenging activity was found for methanol extract of S. aristata roots (85.28 ± 2.61 μg/mL), with the highest total phenolic and flavonoids content (90.28 mg total phenols as gallic acid and 250.12 mg total flavonoids as rutin, respectively). Our results also, showed that H2O2-induced cytotoxicity in SH-SY5Y cells was suppressed by treatment with S. aristata. Moreover, S. aristata root extract was effective in attenuating the disruption of mitochondrial membrane potential and apoptotic cell death has induced by H2O2.  S. aristata suppressed the down-regulation of Bcl-2, upregulation of Bax, and the release of mitochondrial cytochrome c to cytosol. In addition, S. aristata attenuated caspase-3, and -9 activation, and eventually protected the cells against H2O2-induced apoptosis.

Theresults of the present study suggest that treatment of SH-SY5Y cells with S. aristata could block H2O2-induced apoptosis by regulating Bcl-2 family members and by suppressing caspase cascade activation.

Thymus persicus is an endemic species of the genus Thymus (Lamiaceae) which grows in Zanjan and West Azerbaijan (Takab) provinces of Iran. Among the Iranian Thymus species, T. persicus is well differentiated by having the smallest leaf width among Thymus species with long non-glandular and short glandular hairs. In order to evaluate the phylogenetic relationships of the T. persicus and T. marandensis Jamzad, the recently and assumed related species to T. brachychilus Jalas and T. leucotrichus Hal., a molecular analysis based on nrDNA ITS sequences of 25 accessions belonging to 19 species of Thymus together with representatives of genera Origanum, Thymbra, Satureja, Micromeria, Gontscharovia, Ziziphora, Saccocalyx and Zataria was performed. The results of phylogenetic analysis showed that the genus Thymus is paraphyletic when the monotypic genus Saccocalyx is included and its sister relationship with Origanum was confirmed. While the phylogenetic position of T. persicus among the other taxa of Thymus is appeared unresolved. T. marandensis turned out to be the sister to a group of Thymus species including T. carmanicus, T. migricus, T. pubescens, T. trautvetteri and T. daenensis.

Recently, after studying a collected specimen from Tonekabon, it was determined as Hierochloa odorata. This is the first report of the genus from Iran. Morphological characters, habitat, geographical distribution in the world and Iran is presented.