Molecular characterization and determination of antioxidant activity of the species of the genus Asparagus distributed in Van lake basin

Asparagus, a member of Asparagaceae family, comprises three subgenera (Asparagus, Protasparagus and Myrsiphyllum) including 300 species mainly distrubuted arid and subarid regions of the old world. It is an important vegetable grown in broad diversity differing from Mediterranen climates to tropical regions. Asparagus officinalis naturally grows in the Mediterranen, Eastern and Western Anatolia regions of the Turkey. Altough it is not widely used in our country, Asparagus is consumed as food in the Eastern Anatolia. That its farming is so difficult in some areas and its different taste is different limit its cultivation. However, because of its having various uses, marketing opportunities, being a good nutritional source, containing various minerals and vitamins, fat, sugar, starch and carbonhydrates, it is so important to cultivate in the Turkey and to be known by the people. Especially, some studies over use of asparagus as a medical plant have great importance. In addition, many plants used in traditional medicine for various diseases caused by oxidative stress is effective in treating viral and bacterial infections. In plant identification, diagnosis and systematically evaluation, due to influence from environmental factors and growth conditions of the plants, it is necessary use of molecular characteristics as well as in the use of morphological characteristics. In this sense, recent molecular systematic studies separating the plants from each other by revealing their genetic similarity and differences is important. In this study, genetic similarity and differences of the some wild asparagus species (Asparagus) growing in Van province located in the Eastern Anatolia region will be revealed in molecular and morphological level. In addition, it will be tried to determine antioxidant activity, DPPH percentage, fenolic content, total flavonoid content and FRAB by using various tissues. For this purpose, ITS region based on rDNA and trnL-F region based on cpDNA were used. Phylogenetic tree based on ITS region revealed two groups, the first group replaced A. persicus and A. officinalis in same group, while the second gruop replaced A. palaestinus in a seperate group. On the other hand, molecular studies based on trnL-F region using Maximum Likelihood analysis revealed two main group, A. persicus (1) was replaced in a seperate group, whereas other species were replaced in same group. On the other hand, trnL-F region using Neighbour-Joining analysis revealed two main groups, the first group consisted of A. persicus (3) and A. officinalis, whereas other species were replaced in the second group. In term of total phenolics and flavonoids content, the highest phenolics content was measured for A. persicus (2) acetone extract (34,768 mg/g) and the highest flavonoids content was found in A. persicus (6) acetone extract (0,474 mg/g). In addition, the highest value for FRAP was quantified in A. persicus (3) acetone extract (0,061 µmol Fe(II)/g), while the highest DPPH percentage was measured in A. persicus (6) (0,401 mg/ml Trolox).