Researches on the plants sold as ?Adaçayi? in turkey in terms of phytotherapy

Sage (adaçayı) is one of the most important medicinal and aromatic plants used since long times in our country and the world. Adaçayı, known as ?sage? in English, is the name given to Salvia officinalis in Europe. In our country, Salvia, Sideritis ve Stachys species from Lamiaceae family are usually used under the name of ?adaçayı? and consumed as tea. The topic of our research is constituted as purchase of the plant samples sold as ?adaçayı? in akthars and public markets in Turkey, establishmet of their morphologic and microscobic properties and determinaton of antioxidant activities of their infusions. Accordingly, 91 adaçayı samples obtained have been found to belong to 7 taxa, namely Salvia tomentosa Miller, Salvia fruticosa Miller, Sideritis congesta P.H. Davis & Hub.-Mor., Sideritis pisidica Boiss. & Heldr. var. termesi P.H. Davis, Sideritis arguta Boiss. & Heldr., Sideritis perfoliata L., and Sideritis libanotica Labill. subsp. linearis (Bentham) Bornm. However, most of these samples were seen to belong to Salvia fruticosa and Sideritis congesta. Our data is in accordance with previous studies. Antioxidant activity of the aqueous extracts of the adaçayı samples were examined by the methods of DPPH free radical scavenging activity, ferric-reducing antioxidant power, and ferric ion-chelation effect and S. fruticosa was found to possess a notable antioxidant activity.