The paper focuses on the assessment of the spectrum of biological activities (antineoplastic, anti-inflammatory, antifungal, and antibacterial) with PASS (Prediction of Activity Spectra for Substances) for the major components of three macrophytes widespread in the Holarctic species of freshwater, emergent macrophyte with floating leaves,Nuphar lutea(L.) Sm., and two species of submergent macrophyte groups,Ceratophyllum demersumL. andPotamogeton obtusifolius(Mert. et Koch), for the discovery of their ecological and pharmacological potential. The predicted probability of anti-inflammatory or antineoplastic activities above 0.8 was observed for twenty compounds. The same compounds were also characterized by high probability of antifungal and antibacterial activity. Six metabolites, namely, hexanal, pentadecanal, tetradecanoic acid, dibutyl phthalate, hexadecanoic acid, and manool, were a part of the major components of all three studied plants, indicating their high ecological significance and a certain universalism in their use by various species of water plants for the implementation of ecological and biochemical functions. This report underlines the role of identified compounds not only as important components in regulation of biochemical and metabolic pathways and processes in aquatic ecological systems, but also as potential pharmacological agents in the fight against different diseases.

This article deals with the issues of studying low-molecular-weight volatile organic compounds (VOCs) of aquatic macrophytes growing in Russia under different environmental conditions and geographic...

Harmful algal “blooms”, or HABs, is a hazardous natural phenomenon that often occurs under the influence of anthropogenic factors, for example, during the anthropogenic eutrophication of water bodies. An increase in the frequency and duration of cyanobacterial “blooms” carries a number of serious threats, including local and global degradation of water resources and the impact of cyanotoxins. There are various methods of fighting cyanobacterial “blooms” - physical, chemical, the use of bacterial preparations, etc. However, these methods are not effective enough and, most importantly, do not allow effectively solving the problem of suppressing HABs in water bodies without damage to other components of the aquatic ecosystem. Allelopathy is a natural phenomenon for both stimulatory and inhibitory effects of one plant upon another including microorganisms that resolves this problem. Allelochemicals of macrophytes can be considered as natural algaecides and become the basis of a nature-like convergent technology to suppress the development of plankton cyanobacteria and prevent HABs in water bodies. In our work, we used some allelochemicals of aquatic macrophytes to create a combined algicide of the new generation for suppressing the development of cyanobacteria. The effectiveness of suppressing cyanobacterial “blooms” is demonstrated by the example of field experiments with mesocosms and natural phytoplankton.

The regularities that shape the composition of low molecular weight organic compounds (LMWOCs) in aquatic macrophytes in response to aquatic environment alterations remain poorly characterized. The...