Morphological, chemical, and genetic diversity of Gypsophila L. (Caryophyllaceae) species and their potential use in the pharmaceutical industry

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the morphological, chemical, and genetic similarity of species belonging to the genusGypsophila L. The analysis included 7 Gypsophila species with potential use in the pharmaceutical industry for saponin production. Inorder to assess the variation of the morphological traits, a number of morphological characteristics have been determined (including thenumber of lateral roots, diameter and total root length, average plant height, number of shoots and their diameter, number of brancheson the shoot, length and width of leaves, and fresh and air-dried weight of aerial and underground parts of plants), while prosaponincontent was determined as the chemical trait. Gypsogenin 3-O-glucuronide and quillaic acid 3-O-glucuronide were the dominantprosaponins determined in the Gypsophila roots (amounting up to 13.5 mg $g^{-1}$ dry extract in G. scorzonerifolia Ser. and 12.3 mg $g^{-1}$ dryextract in G. acutifolia Spreng., respectively). Moreover, a variation analysis at the molecular level was carried out based on the RAPDand ISSR methods. The conducted analysis showed that the most distinct species at the morphological, chemical, and genetic levels wereG. paniculata L. and G. oldhamiana Miq.