Pharmaceutical botany and phytochemical researches on some Calendula L. species growing around Eski̇şehi̇r

The genus of Calendula L. belongs to Asteraceae family which is the largest family of flowering plants is represented by three species in Turkey. They are Calendula suffruticosa Wahl., Calendula officinalis L. and Calendula arvensis L. Calendula officinalis L. species. C. officinalis called as "Marigold" is one of the species that popular in the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industry. Since ancient times, it has used for the healing of skin inflammations, wounds, burns, bruises and cuts. It is used both internally and externally as infusion, tincture, liquid extract, cold pressed oil and ointment. In this study, C. officinalis plants that collected from 4 different localities around Eskişehir were investigated by their taxonomic, morphological, anatomical and phytochemical features. In morphological studies; a detailed description and drawings of the species was written. In anatomical studies, cross sections were taken from root, stem and leaves and internal structures were observed. The root is secondary structure. The stem has 7-8 corners, transmission bundles are ring-shaped and they are 15-16 pieces, also core zone is full. A large number of non-glandular and Compositae type glandular trichomes are located on the stem. Leaves are dorsiventral. Stomatas are amphistomatic and mesomorph. It is anomocytic type. In phytochemical researches, at the end of water distillation method 4 different volatile oil from different localities were yielded from the herb parts of plant. Volatile compounds were analyzed by GC and GC/MS. The main components of the essential oil of C. officinalis is α-cadinol (31,2-34,5%), δ-cadinene (15,2-18,8%) and T-muurolol (6,3-8,2%). Keywords: Asteraceae, Calendula officinalis L., Marigold, Morphology and Anatomy, GC/MS, α-cadinol