Laurel is a medicinally important plant and is known to the world for its essential oil. Turkey is the main market in the laurel leaf trade by sharing about 90% of the world trade. Here we made an effort to elucidate genetic diversity and population structure of 94 Turkish laurel genotypes collected from 26 provinces and four geographical regions using inter-primer binding site (iPBS) retrotransposon markers. A total of 13 most polymorphic primers were selected which yielded 195 total bands, of which 84.10% were found polymorphic. Mean polymorphism information content (PIC) was (0.361) and diversity indices including mean effective number of alleles (1.36), mean Shannon’s information index (0.35) and overall gene diversity (0.22) revealed the existence of sufficient amount of genetic diversity in the studied plant material. Most diversity was found in genotypes collected from the Mediterranean region. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed that most of the variation (85%) in Turkish laurel germplasm is due to differences within populations. Model-based structure, principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) and neighbor-joining algorithms were found in agreement and clustered the studied germplasm according to their collection provinces and regions. This is a very first study exploring the genetic diversity and population structure of laurel germplasm using iPBS-retrotransposon marker system. We believe that information provided in this work will be helpful for the scientific community to take more interest in this forgotten but the medicinally important plant.

The objective of this study was to determine the yield and quality characteristics of golden thistle (Scolymus hispanicus L.) harvested at different maturity stages. The trial was arranged in the Randomised Complete Block Design under the ecological conditions of Izmir, Turkey in 2017 and 2018 growing seasons and the plants were harvested from November to August at 10 monthly periods. Root lenght (cm), root yield (kg ha-1), root bark yield (kg ha-1), dry root bark yield (kg ha-1), root collar diameter (mm), root xylem diameter (mm), cortex thickness (mm), taraxasterol rate (%) taraxasterol acetate rate (%) were determined. The highest root and root cortex yields were obtained from the plants harvested in july, the average of two years as 19770.64 kg ha-1 and 6480.65 kg ha-1, respectively. The highest taraxasterol and taraxasterol acetate rates were obtained in May harvest as 0.042% and 0.015% in two years respectively.

Bu çalışmanın amacı, yerli ve yabancı ticari anason (Pimpinella anisum L.) genotiplerinde uçucu yağın içeriğini ve bileşimini belirlemektir. Çalışmada 122 adet yerli, 11 adet yabancı kaynaklı olmak üzere toplam 133 adet anason materyali kullanılmıştır. Anason meyvelerinde yapılan kimyasal analizler sonucunda uçucu yağ içeriği %1,74 ile %7,69 arasında değişim göstermiştir. Uçucu yağın ana bileşeni olan trans-anethol oranı ise %84,61 ile %97,53 değerleri arasında bulunmuştur. Uçucu yağdaki diğer bileşenler olan pseudo-2-eugenyl-2-methyl butyrate %0,71 ile %12,43 arasında, p-allylanisole %0,14 ile %2,08 arasında, methyl eugenol ise %0,14 ile %0,50 arasında değişim göstermiştir. Yapılan çalışma sonucunda, yerli ve yabancı anason genotiplerinde kalite özellikleri bakımından oldukça önemli bir varyasyon meydana geldiği görülmüştür.

The genus Stachys (Lamiaceae) is represented by about 300 species found in the world. Turkey is one of the richest countries in Stachys diversity being represented by 83 species with a level of 48% endemism. In this study, Stachys lavandulifolia V ahl. was collected from Alacabük mountain of Tatvan in Eastern Anatolia. S. lavandulifolia Vahl. subsp. lavandulifolia, known as “dağ çayı, tüylü çay”, is widely consumed in Anatolia as herbal tea. Stachys species belong to one of the oldest medicinal plants that are used both for pharmaceutical purposes and in folk medicine; It is used for the treatment of gastrointestinal and respiratory disorders, and is known as an appetizer, carminative, stimulant, digestive, diuretic, and throat pain reliever. Wild plants gathered from nature are cheaper food and important for human health. Thus, in the present study, nutritional value and mineral composition of used parts of selected S. lavandulifolia Vahl. var. lavandulifolia was investigated. In laboratory analysis, total ash, % N, crude protein, crude fiber and pH were examined as nutritional value. Useful minerals (Ca, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, P, S and Zn) and some heavy metals (Cd, Co, Cr and Pb) that are hazardous elements for livings were also determined. The total ash, total nitrogen and crude protein, pH and crude fiber content of the plants were identified as 7.00%, 1.31%, 8.03%, 6.53% and 38.40%, and respectively. Mineral analysis showed that the wild plants samples contained considerably high amounts of potassium (17.46g/kg), phosphorus (4.70g/kg), calcium (17.25g/kg), magnesium (2.47g/kg), iron (241.37mg/kg), manganese (22.95mg/kg) and zinc (18.56mg/kg). This work contributed to the nutritional properties of some wild plants, and the results may be useful for the evaluation of dietary information.

Bu çalışma organik ve konvansiyonel tarım koşullarında yetiştirilen bazı tıbbi ve aromatik bitkilerin kalite özelliklerini belirlemek amacıyla yürütülmüştür. Materyal olarak Anadolu adaçayı (Salvia fruticosa Mill.), İzmir kekiği (Origanum onites L.), lavandin (Lavandula x intermedia Emeric ex Loisel.), lavander (Lavandula angustifolia Mill.), bahçe nanesi (Mentha spicata L.) ve tıbbi nane (Mentha x piperita L.) kullanılmıştır. Bitkiler tam çiçeklenme döneminde hasat edilmiş, inkübatörde kurutulmuş ve uçucu yağları su distilasyonu yöntemiyle çıkarılmıştır. Uçucu yağların kimyasal bileşimi GC/MS ile belirlenmiştir. Bitkilerdeki uçucu yağ oranları organik ve konvansiyonel tarım koşullarında türlere göre sırası ile Anadolu adaçayında %2,8-3,2, İzmir kekiğinde %3,5-3,8, lavandinde %5,4-6,3, lavanderde %3,1-3,4, bahçe nanesinde %1,7-2,2 ve tıbbi nanede %2,1-2,4 arasında değişim göstermiştir. Uçucu yağların ana bileşenleri ve oranları ise organik ve konvansiyonel tarım koşullarında türlere göre Anadolu adaçayında 1,8-sineol %40,92-44,52, İzmir kekiğinde karvakrol %43,84-48,47, lavandinde linalol %32,84-34,69, lavanderde linalil asetat %33,03-36,28, bahçe nanesinde karvon %53,64-59,01 ve tıbbi nanede menthon %40,86-45,32 arasında değişim göstermiştir. Sonuç olarak, organik tarım koşullarında incelenen tüm türlerin uçucu yağ oranlarının düştüğü tespit edilmiştir. Bununla birlikte, organik ve konvansiyonel tarım koşullarında uçucu yağlarda bulunan ana bileşenlerin oranlarında önemli bir değişim meydana gelmemiştir.

Cumin (Cuminum cyminum L.) is one of the most consumed spices worldwide. In this study, seeds obtained from India, Iran, Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Türkiye (Denizli) were used as the materials. Different parameters including essential oil content of seeds (%), essential oil composition (%), fixed oil content (%), fatty acid composition (%), colour values (l, a, b), total phenolic substance (mg GAE/g dry herb) and total flavonoid substance (mg CE/g dry herb) were determined. Result showed that the content of essential oil in unground seeds varied between 1.08% and 4.68%, while, the values were 3.20%-5.02% in ground seeds. Gamma-terpinen-7-al, cuminal, gamma-terpinene and beta-pinene were the prominent main compounds in all cumin seed samples. The fixed oil content ranged from 2.38% to 17.50% in unground seeds and 2.25% to 17.47% in ground seeds. Six different fatty acids were found in fixed oil. Among these fatty acids, oleic acid was the main component. Oleic acid level varied between 56.63% and 65.12%. The CIE L*, a* and b* colour values of the samples ranged between 40.12-45.29, 2.37-7.88, and 17.85-25.95, respectively. Total phenolic matter and flavonoid content of the cumin seed samples were founded between 7.00-11.06 mg GAE/g DW and 2.04-5.08 mg CE/g DW, respectively.