Translated from Khimiya Prirodnykh Soedinenii, No. 3, May–June, 2021, pp. 492–493.
Senecio erucifolius L. (Asteraceae) is a perennial plant with a rhizomatic thermophilic habit that is distributed in parts of Asia, Europe, and the Mediterranean [
The aerial part of S. erucifolius was collected in June 2018 in Shawan District, Xinjiang Province, China (43.9680° N, 85.8763° E; 1146 m elevation), during flowering. A voucher specimen (serial No. XJBI 201825706) is deposited in the herbarium of Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Essential oil was extracted by traditional steam distillation for 4 h using fresh plant (200 g). Then, the essential oil was dried over anhydrous Na
The chemical composition of the essential oil was analyzed using a 7890A-5975C GC-MS system equipped with a DB-5ms column (5%-phenyl-methylpolysiloxane; 30 m × 0.25 mm; 0.25 μm film thickness) and a flame-ionization detector [
A total of 37 compounds were identified, which was 85.7% of the total essential-oil mass. They were classified as sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (32.7%), non-terpene O-containing compounds (29.0%), hydrocarbons (14.4%), monoterpenes (6.6%), and oxygenated sesquiterpenes (2.1%). The dominant constituents were dibutyl phthalate (16.2%), isoledene (7.7%), β-cis-ocimene (5.5%), butylcyclopentane (4.9%), and germacrene D (4.8%) (Table 1).
Table 1. Chemical Composition of Essential Oil from S. erucifolius
Constituent RI Content, % Constituent RI Content, % Butylcyclopentane 885 4.96 α-Se linene 1559 0.93 ( 1035 5.48 1586 1.48 ( 1085 0.78 ( 1618 2.75 (4 1115 0.69 Patchoulane 1635 0.74 Santolina triene 1320 0.49 α-Mint sulfide 1692 0.59 Damascenone 1351 1.1 Perhydrofarnesyl acetone 1821 0.87 Aromadendrene 1360 2.44 Dibutyl phthalate 1910 16.21 ( 1372 1.07 Hexadecanoic acid 1952 2.00 Isoledene 1399 7.69 ( 2090 4.8 β-Cubebene 1408 2.7 Linolenic acid 2110 0.99 β-Copaene 1422 1.08 Tricosane 2290 0.86 Humulene 1430 2.34 Di(2-ethylhexyl) ester of adipic acid 2359 0.32 β-Farnesene 1441 3.23 Tetracosane 2389 1.06 Germacrene D 1458 4.86 Pentacosane 2491 2.81 δ-Cadinene 1465 0.32 Heptacosane 2690 1.14 Isogermacrene D 1472 1.27 Monoterpenes 6.66 Muurolene 1477 0.78 Sesquiterpene hydrocarbons 32.74 ( 1489 1.6 Oxygenated sesquite rpenes 2.1 β-Cadinene 1499 2.43 Hydrocarbons 14.47 ( 1510 0.64 29.04 Spathulenol 1543 0.71 0.74 Epoxycaryophyllene 1546 1.39 Total 85.75
The phytotoxic activity of the essential oil was evaluated against three weeds, i.e., Medicago sativa L., Urtica cannabina L., and Amaranthus retroflexus L. [
The length of roots of M. sativa, U. cannabina, and A. retroflexus increase by 21.00, 10.46, and 2.53%, respectively, after treatment with oil at the lowest concentration (0.125 mg/mL) and decreased by 9.36, 23.00, and 19.53% after treatment at the highest concentration (4 mg/mL). The lengthening of the runners was analogous to the essential oil but to a lesser extent (Table 2).
Table 2. Phytotoxic Activity of Essential Oil from S. erucifolius
Test plant Essential oil concentration, mg/mL 0 0.125 0.25 0.5 1 2 4 Roots 2.15 ± 0.19ab 2.61 ± 0.14a 2.43 ± 0.13a 2.28 ± 0.20ab 2.22 ± 0.16ab 1.91 ± 0.17b 1.95 ± 0.20b 3.08 ± 0.26a 3.40 ± 0.20a 3.35 ± 0.22a 3.08 ± 0.21a 3.06 ± 0.24a 2.95 ± 0.31ab 2.37 ± 0.25b 4.83 ± 0.20a 4.95 ± 0.27a 5.01 ± 0.19a 4.73 ± 0.28a 4.41 ± 0.22ab 3.83 ± 0.32b 3.89 ± 0.36b Runners 0.65 ± 0.05b 0.84 ± 0.06a 0.79 ± 0.04ab 0.74 ± 0.05ab 0.64 ± 0.05b 0.68 ± 0.04b 0.57 ± 0.05b 0.45 ± 0.03c 0.84 ± 0.04a 0.63 ± 0.05b 0.65 ± 0.07b 0.58 ± 0.05bc 0.60 ± 0.05b 0.58 ± 0.05bc 1.22 ± 0.06a 1.28 ± 0.08a 1.29 ± 0.06a 1.16 ± 0.08ab 1.22 ± 0.06a 1.13 ± 0.10ab 0.99 ± 0.10b
Length of roots and runners expressed as average ± SE (n = 60); statistically significant difference (p < 0.05) shown by different letters.
Dibutyl phthalate, the dominant constituent of S. erucifolius essential oil, is widely used as a plasticizer. It was often detected in plants such as Atriplex cana and in microorganisms, indicating that it may be biosynthesized [10–13]. Furthermore, nanoplastics can accumulate in plants depending on their surface charge. This could have direct impacts for the environment and agricultural security [
The work was financially supported by the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research (STEP) (2019QZKK0502) in collaboration with the Program of Tian-Shan Scientists of Shandong, China (ts201712071).
By C. P. Zhang; Z. O. Toshmatov; S. X. Zhou; W. J. Li; C. Zhang and H. Shao
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