Phenetic relationships among natural population accessions of Glycyrrhiza glabra L. (Fabaceae) in central Zagros region of Iran, based on quantitative morphology, flavonoids and glycyrrhizin contents data Print

Phenetic relationships among thirty five accessions from natural populations of two varieties of Glycyrrhiza glabra in central Zagros region of Iran were studied. Twenty one quantitative morphological characters were measured for twenty seven accessions. PCO، clustering، K-means and MDS analyses were performed on morphological dataset. Polar flavonoid constituents of twenty four accessions were extracted، purified using TLC and characterized at the skeleton class level. Glycyrrhizin contents of rhizomes in twenty four accessions were quantified using image processing methods. Results of multivariate analysis of both morphological and flavonoid spot profile data showed that accessions could be partitioned into two main groups based on geographical locality of the populations. The most variable morphological trait based on CV values، was seed area and the least variable one was Legume width in the widest portion. Accessions of both varieties produced various flavonoids of class flavones and flavonols. Seven flavonoid constituents from the two varieties were separated based on different Rf values. The results revealed that there were moderate (not prominent) levels of variation between the studied accessions. Separation of the varieties based on the single qualitative character in the available literature، was confirmed. Rhizomes of both varieties showed similar amounts of glycyrrhizin and almost similar types of flavonoids in their TLC profiles، suggesting that both were equivalent as herbal drugs in folk medicine.