Saint John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum L. – HP, Hypericaceae) has been used traditionally across Europe for centuries and in contemporary society it plays an important medical role. Its renown ability to treat wounds is being investigated (Oztürk et al., 2007 Süntar et al., 2010, 2011) but, most importantly, it is now widely used as a prescription or over the counter medicine to treat minor to moderate depression (licensed medicines) or ‘low mood’ (registered products). It was found that its activity is comparable to antidepressants when dealing with mild to moderate depression (Apaydin et al., 2016). In general, it is a licensed drug in many European countries and in the United Kingdom it is registered under the THR scheme. While considerable effort has gone into understanding the chemistry and pharmacology of commercially used materials, little attention has been paid to tological and chemical complexity of the starting material and specifically to the diversity within the... See full list on (1) To systematically compare the variability of HP samples originating from diverse geographical locations covering both the main natural range of HP and some selected regions of agricultural production. (2) To assess what consusive of todiversity and variability. (3) To assess whether all accessible subspecies/geographical sources constitute good starting material and to guarantee a good final product. (4) To find an appropriate method for the evaluation of the materia prima. This has been achieved by analyzing samples from different countries across the world and comparing the data with those provided by the previous study conducted on the finished products available on the market (Booker et al., 2018). See full list on All solvents were purchased from Merck KGaA, Fisher Scientif, except of deuterated methanol which was purchased from C See full list on With the intention to define the chemical profile of HP, the project embarked on the analysis of samples trying to identify the common as well as the variable chemical components of HPs from different geographical regions. Therefore, our collection of 77 HP samples from 14 different countries covered native Europe extensively (South England, Portugal, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Bulgaria, Greece), Lebanon, Tajikistan, China and areas of introduction such as South America (Chile, Argentina) and Australia (Figure 1). As a first step, the chemical composition of different sections of the aerial parts, the traditionally recommended drug, were analyzed. One single HP specimen from Southern England (nr 53) was cut in 4 parts (sample 53#1 0–18 cm, lower 53#2 18–37, cm lower intermediate 53#3 37–54 cm, upper intermediate 53#4 54–65 cm, flowering tops) in addition, samples containing only leaves (sample 53#5) and only flowers (sample 53#6) were taken from the same specimen. HPTLC... See full list on This study demonstrates that the view of ‘Chinese HP’ containing some unique marker substances cannot be substantiated. The HPTLC profiles have highlighted how tnese samples and some of the Spanish samples both contain avicularin. At the same time tnese samples carry some extra differences that distinguish them from the Spanish avicularin-containing ones. According to the Hypericum monographs (Robson, 2002), the distribution of subspecies perforatum and veronense overlaps in Mediterranean Europe, with minor morphological differences serving as diagnostic markers. On the other hand subspecies chinense is quite isolated geographically. As a consequence, it is possible that these detected anomalies, when compared to the EP standard, represent chemotypes characteristic for specific geographical regions. Our samples could not be clearly assigned to these subspecies Moreover, this study demonstrates that rutin, though present in the EP standard and found in all the marketed pr... See full list on FS, AB, and MH contributed to the conception and design of the study. FS gathered the samples and prepared voucher specimens. FS and KL analyzed the samples. FS analyzed the data and drafted the manuscript. All authors contributed to manuscript revision, read and approved the submitted version. See full list on FS’s postdoctoral position was funded through a charitable donation by Dr. Willmar Schwabe GmbH and Co. KG, Karlsruhe, Germany, who has had no input into the experimental design and the interpretation of the data. See full list on The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or ficial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. See full list on We would like to thank the Natural History Museum, London, in particular Dr. Norman Robson, for his insight and expertise and Mr. Jacek Wajer for his help and support. The collection of samples would have not been possible without the valuable collaboration of: Dan Zhao (School of Pharmacy, University of Chinese Medicine, China), Zi (School of Chinese Medicine, Baptist University, ), Diego Rivera (Spain), Concepcion Obon De Castro (Spain), Alonso Verde (Spain), Jose Fajardo (Spain), Lig Zhai (), Carlos Echiburu Chau (Chile), Roberto Saavedra (Chile), Ivo Pischel (Germany), Sarah Edwards (England), Stephanie Miles (England), Hans Wohlmuth (Australia), Michael Keusgen (Germany), Fabrizio Zara (Italy), Silvia Soldatou (Greece), Zachary Bellman (England), Matthew Traver (England), Nicola Bell (England), Peter Field (England), Marco Leonti (Italy), Ana Maria Carvalho (Portugal), Debora Frommenwiler (Switzerland), and Xiaofei Zhang (China). See full list on The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https:///articles/10.3389/fpls.2018.01973/full#supplementary-material See full list on
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