Pharmaceutical botany investigations on Leonurus L. species growing in Turkey

In this study, morphological and anatomical characters of species belonging to the genus Leonurus L. growing in Turkey were determined in detail, and the morphological measurements were evaluated by cluster analysis and discriminant analysis techniques using SPSS program. For this purpose, the studied taxa were collected from different localities at flowering times. Micromorphological features of stem, calyx and nutlets and surface ornamentations of pollens were described for the first time using SEM. By comparing the antioxidant effects of the extracts prepared with different solvents from the aerial parts of Leonurus species with DPPH˙ and ABTS˙+ assays, the total phenolic substance amounts were determined in gallic acid equivalent by Folin-Ciocaltaeu method and the results were associated. It was observed that the antioxidant effect was the highest in the L. cardiaca taxon collected from Bursa, where the highest value (170 mg GAE /g) was detected. Antibacterial and antifungal effects have been demonstrated against 12 pathogenic microorganisms with antimicrobial susceptibility tests. The cytotoxic effects of the extracts on A549, MCF 7 and C6 cells were examined using the MTT method and it was determined that they were highly effective on the C6 cell line. In terms of evaluating the biological effects obtained, the chemical composition of each extract was analyzed by HPLC-MS/MS, and the main components (genkwanin, verbascoside) were determined. In addition, ITS primers were used for DNA sequence analysis of the species that constitute the thesis subject, these gene regions were sequenced and compared with the GenBank data, and the phylogenetic relationships between the species were evaluated. According to the results, a successful distinction was made at the level of species with ITS primers.