Determination of oil components of primula and investigation of some biological properties

The branch of science that studies chemicals obtained from plants and called phytochemicals is called phytochemistry. Primrose is known as Primula vulgaris in Latin and is a perennial plant belonging to the Primulaceae family. Thanks to the antioxidant properties of primrose essential oils, it has many uses in medicine and cosmetics. These oils are known to be widely used in cosmetic fields. The primrose samples used in this study were harvested on March 11, 2023, from the Yalak Plateau region located around Yalak Village in Iskilip district of Çorum. Essential oils obtained from the root, leaf and flower parts of primrose were obtained by Soxhlet extraction using hexane. Antioxidant properties of essential oils obtained from root, leaf and flower parts were determined by DPPH analysis, CUPRAC determination, total phenolic substance analysis and total flavonoid analysis. Additionally, DNA protection activity was detected for all components. Finally, the chemical oil composition was determined using GC-MS. In the chemical composition analysis performed by GC-MS, the root oil sample contained 58,85% oleic acid methyl ester, 27,74% palmitic acid methyl ester and 6,03% cis-10-heptadecenoic acid methyl ester; 48,71% stearic acid methyl ester, 23,91% oleic acid methyl ester, 15,12% palmitic acid methyl ester in the leaf oil sample and 26,57% γ-linolenic acid methyl ester, 25,18% oleic acid methyl ester, 19.63% palmitic acid methyl ester in the flower oil sample were detected. Structure-functional group analyzes of the obtained oil samples were carried out with FTIR. According to the DPPH method, the antioxidant activities for the root essential oil are 0.0407 μg trolox equivalent/μl, according to the CUPRAC determination, the antioxidant activities are 0.2309 μg ascorbic acid equivalent/μl for the root essential oil, according to the total phenolic substance analysis, the antioxidant activities are 0 for the root essential oil, According to the total flavonoid analysis method, antioxidant activities were determined as 0.2327 μg quercetin equivalent/μl for leaf essential oil. The DNA protection activity of the oil samples obtained was determined and it was determined that it did not have any effect on the DNA plasmid and did not show any protection activity on the breaking of the DNA plasmid by Fenton.