Secondary metabolites of the choosen genus iris species

KASSAK, P.: Secondary metabolites of the choosen genus iris species. Acta univ. agric. et silvic. Mendel. Brun. , 2012, LX, No. 8, pp. 269–280 Genus Iris contains more than 260 species which are mostly distributed across the North Hemisphere. Irises are mainly used as the ornamental plants, due to their colourful fl owers, or in the perfume industry, due to their violet like fragrance, but lot of iris species were also used in many part of the worlds as medicinal plants for healing of a wide spectre of diseases. Nowadays the botanical and biochemical research bring new knowledge about chemical compounds in roots, leaves and fl owers of the iris species, about their chemical content and possible medicinal usage. Due to this researches are Irises plants rich in content of the secondary metabolites. The most common secondary metabolites are fl avonoids and isofl avonoids. The second most common group of secondary metabolites are fl avones, quinones and xanthones. This review brings together results of the iris research in last few decades, putting together the information about the secondary metabolites research and chemical content of iris plants. Some clinical studies show positive results in usage of the chemical compounds obtained from various iris species in the treatment of cancer, or against the bacterial and viral infections. genus iris, secondary metabolites, fl avonoids, isofl avonoids, fl avones, medicinal plants, chemical compounds The genus Iris L. contains about 260 species which are distributed in temperate regions across the Northern Hemisphere, occurring mostly in Eurasia and North America. Some Iris species are found in wetland environments, most species occur in desert, semi-desert or dry, rocky habitats. Species of the genus Iris are recognized by their basal fan of unifacial leaves; colorful perianth of three horizontal sepals and three upright petals that are basally fused into a tube; style branches that are fused at the base, petaloid distally and extend beyond the small fl ap-like, transverse stigma as a bifi d crest; and three stamens that are opposite to the sepals and petaloid style (WILSOM, 2001). The most common grown plants, and plants with medicinal use from the genus Iris, are listed in Tab. I. From plants which belong to genus Iris were isolated isofl avonoids (WU and XU, 1992; MORITA et al., 1972), quinones (SEKI et al., 1994) and iridaltype triterpenoids (KRICK et al., 1983). This corresponds with the research of Farag et al. (1999) which states that Iris species are known to be rich in isofl avonoids and fl avonoids content in addition to C-glycosylxanthones and quinones content in some taxa. Williams (1997) prove the distribution of 17 glycosylfl avones in 14 Iris species. Harborne and Williams (2000) also characterized the family Iridaceae as rich in content of secondary metabolites. They indicate that many varied phytochemicals have been described from this family. Isofl avones was fi rst recorded in Iris fl orentina, but they have recently been detected also in Iris pseudopumila. Almost all common classes of fl avonoids are also present in the iris plants. The anthocyanins in fl owers are generally distinctive at the generic level. Quinonoid and xanthone pigments have systematically interesting distribution patterns. Distinctive chemicals in Iris rhizome oils are useful economically. Also other phytochemicals such as nonprotein amino acids and special storage carbohydrates have restricted distribution patterns. Williams et al. (1986) wrote that xanthones are widely and characteristically