نشریه زیست فناوری گیاهان دارویی
سال پنجم شماره 1 (Spring-Summer 2019)

Medicinal herb (Myrtus communis L.) is a perennial and aromatic herb with different medicinal properties. It grows mostly in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. This study investigated the effects of important factors including plant explants and hormones concentrations on regeneration of Myrtle. Firstly seeds of Myrtle were sterilized and germinated in the Murashic-Scug medium to use for preparation of aseptic leaf, stem and root explants. So four concentrations (0-1-2-3) mg / L of regeneration hormones including kinetin, BAP, TDZ and BAP + TDZ were used invitro. Leaf explants and concentration of 3 mg / L BAP + TDZ had the highest regeneration. Because of the low germination rate of Myrtle seeds and low repropagation of vegetative protocols in this medicinal plant, our results can be useful for its mass propagation.

Achillea tenuifolia  is one of the benefit medicinal plants that belong to  Astraceae family have been used in traditional medicine because of their antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties in the treatment of diseases, inflammation, tenderness, gastrointestinal problems, hypotension and gallbladder failure, and in new medicine in the manufacture of ointments and creams. The aim of this reserch was determining of the Achillea tenuifolia  essential oils composiation that was growned in zanjan mountains counditions.Then air dried parts of flowers and leaves (50 gr) at room conditions subjected to hydrodistillation for 3h using a Clevenger apparatus and produced essential oil analyzed by GC/MS. Results showed, Twenty compounds representing 54.37% of Achillea tenuifolia essential oil were identified. Their major components that obtained from essential oil constituents were identified as:  (+)-2-Bornanone (12.36%), Camphor (6.78%), Eucalyptol(1,8-Cineole) (5.24%), 3-Carene(5.35%), Borneol (3.12%), Camphene (2.45%), Gamma.-Terpinene(1.7%), and Geranyl acetate (2.18%) and 4-Carene(0.53%). Based on our knowledge this is the first report of Zanjan Achillea tenuifolia.

The Spring season in Iran, especially the months of April and May, is a thriving season for the wild harvesting and sale of fresh medicinal plants and mushrooms that are seen in the form of local markets and seasonal stores during the rainy season. Based on habitats of Iranian truffles, they can be classified in two groups including Desert truffles and Forest truffles. Based on our knowledge desert truffles are distributed in Northwest, West, East and Southern of Iran, specially in uncultivated area with special soil physicochemical properties.  Our documented information shows the growth of desert truffles in more than 14 provinces of the country including Zanjan, Qazvin, areas of  Tehran, Mazandaran and Golestan rangelands, East Azarbaijan; West Azarbailan. Hamedan, Kordestan, Fars, Bandar abbas, Kerman and Sistan and Bluchestan. Based on macroscopic, microscopic and molecular analysis, Terfezia sp. and Pico sp. are two common genus of desert truffles. Tuber aestivum and Tuber uncinatum are two scientifically introduced genus for Iranin mycobiota.

Opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) is one of the most important medicinal plants which can be cultured for use of the alkaloid morphine too. Plant poppy have been also associated with the most pests and diseases all over the world. One of the major disease is related to Fusarium oxyspoprumt which can also control plant cultivation in biggest producer of opium. However¸ the objectives of this study were to evaluate the effect of Fusarium oxysporum isolates against opium poppy and verify their potential as biocontrol agent. For this, a 2-year experiment was carried out under glasshouse (2 trials) and field conditions (2 trials). From infected poppy plants, a total of 16 pathogenic fungal strains were identified as F. oxysporum and used for the experiments. The isolates Ghr18, Ghr5-2, Mr28 and Ghr5-4 caused the highest wilting symptoms on sample plants (P< 0.001). In addition, no significant differences were observed between field and glasshouse conditions (P > 0.5). Moreover, the results showed a clear host specificity of the selected pathogenic isolates. These results suggest that Fusarium isolates have the potential to be used as biological control agents against poppy plants where legal policy surrounding the growing of this plant.

Allium hirtifolium commonly known as Persian shallot is an important wild medicinal plant distributed from North West to central and South West of Iran. To establish an efficient protocol for callus induction, the effects of explant type and growth regulators on callus induction in four ecotypes of Persian shallot were evaluated. Two explants types included basal plates and young leaves were cultured on MS media supplemented with 1.5 mg l-1 of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) or 1.5 mg l-1 of 1-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) in combination with 0, 0.5 or 1 mg l-1 of 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP). All the cultures were maintained at 25±1°C in the dark. The results showed that basal plate was the best explant for callus induction when cultured on medium supplemented with 1.5 mg l-1 2,4-D and 0.5 mg l-1 BAP. This optimized protocol will be useful for any future breeding improvement programs of Persian shallot using biotechnological means.