Phytochemical diversity study in wild populations of Salicornia iranica Akhani grown around Lake Urmia

Plant polyphenolic compounds have long been of interest to researchers due to their antioxidant and possibly anti-cancer effects. In this research, in order to study the phytochemical diversity of 32 wild populations of Salicornia iranica Akhani grown around Lake Urmia, some traits including the content of chlorophyll, carotenoids, total phenol, total flavonoids, and antioxidant capacity were measured in the Department of Horticultural Science, Urmia University in 2016. The results revealed a wide range of phytochemical diversity among populations studied. The highest amount of total chlorophyll (12.05 mg/g fw) was observed in "Karkhaneh Maseh" population, while the lowest value (0.84 mg/g fw) was found in "Ghoshchi I" population. The highest (10.41 mg gallic acid/g fw) and lowest (3.7 mg gallic acid/g fw) amount of total phenol were observed in "Ghoshchi II" and "Karkhaneh Maseh" populations, respectively. Also, "Dashkhaneh" and "Aji Chai river" populations had the highest (2.12 mg quercetin/g fw) and lowest (0.18 mg quercetin/g fw) total flavonoids, respectively. The extract antioxidant capacity of different populations varied in the range of 3.16% ("Aji Chai river" population) to 70.89% ("Myghitalou" population). Cluster analysis divided the populations studied into three groups. The highest genetic distance was found between populations "Aji Chai river" and "Myghitalou". Overall, the findings of this experiment showed that the studied Salicornia iranica populations had a high diversity, especially from the viewpoint of antioxidant capacity, which can be used in the germplasm management and plant breeding of the species.