The use of Sideritis spp. in the folk medicine has been recorded in many
ethnopharmacological studies. The infusion of Sideritis (Mountain Tea) has been traditionally
consumed as herbal tea with therapeutic properties in various countries of the Mediterranean
area. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has also recognized it as a traditional medicine
and included herba Sideritis (S. scardica, S. clandestina, S. raeseri, S. syriaca) as a treatment
against the common cold, for cough relief, as well as for the relief of mild gastrointestinal
disorders. The present study was undertaken in order to investigate the effect of different
cultivation practices (conventional versus organic cultivation; full-irrigated and deficit-
irrigated plants) in the yield and phytochemical profile of S. perfoliata L. subsp. perfoliata
from Cyprus. Plants were cultivated in an open field and the aerial parts harvested two times
and were used in the study. Deficit irrigation decreased plant biomass production and
increased dry matter content. Plants subjected to deficit irrigation decreased the leaf stomatal
conductance in order to maintain water storage in the leaves. In general, the content of
polyphenols, flavonoids, antioxidant activities (as assayed by FRAP, DPPH, ABTS) increased
in conventional and deficit irrigation treatment as well as in organic (full and deficit
irrigation) treatments. The infusions of each plant material were prepared according to the
EMA monograph. Based on their NMR spectra, the deficit-irrigated plants from conventional
cultivation were the richest in secondary metabolites and chosen for further chemical analysis.
So far, six iridoids, three flavonoids, two phenylethanoid glucosides and one phenolic acid
have been isolated; their structural elucidation was undertaken by high-field NMR
spectroscopy.

 

Industrial Crops and Products, 2019, DOI:10.1016/j.indcrop.2019.111694
Antonios Chrysargyris a, Charalampia Kloukina b, Rea Vassiliou a, Ekaterina-Michaela
Tomou b, Helen Skaltsa b, Nikolaos Tzortzakis a
a Department of Agricultural Sciences, Biotechnology and Food Science, Cyprus University of
Technology, 3036, Lemesos, Cyprus
b Department of Pharmacognosy & Chemistry of Natural Products, School of Pharmacy, National &
Kapodistrian University of Athens, Panepistimiopolis, Zografou, 15771, Athens, Greece