NATURAL RESOURCES OF VERONICA ANAGALLIS-AQUATICA L. - VOLATILE COMPOUNDS ISOLATED FROM WILD AND CULTIVATED SPECIES.

The genus Veronica (speedwells) belongs to the family Plantaginaceae and comprises of about 500 species, which are mainly distributed in the northern hemisphere, especially in the Mediterranean and mountainous regions, and about 40 species have been described in Croatia. Plants of the Veronica genus and their extracts are used worldwide in traditional medicine and nutrition. Extracts obtained from Veronica anagallis-aquatica L., the water speedwell, are the subject of the present study. Water speedwell is an edible and medicinal species used in ethnobotany for the treatment of colds and coughs. The compositions of the extracts of investigated species, which include the free volatile compounds, are compared between plants collected in their natural habitat and those that have been cultivated last spring (2023). The cultivated speedwell was grown from seeds collected the previous year (2022). The isolation of the free volatile compounds was performed by microwave-assisted extraction, and each extract obtained consists of two phases: a lipophilic (essential oil) and an aqueous phase (hydrosol). The phytochemical composition of the isolates was determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The essential oil of V. anagallis-aquatica collected in the natural habitat consisted of 25.97% hexahydrofarnesyl acetone, and 9.67% benzene acetaldehyde as main compounds. Hexahydrofarnesyl acetone is present in a similar percentage (22.05%) in the essential oil from cultivated plants, while benzene acetaldehyde was identified at 6.65%. In the hydrosol phase of V. anagallis-aquatica from the wild form, one of the major constituents is also benzene acetaldehyde at 18.34%, and (E)-β-damascenone at 20.45%. These two compounds also dominate in the composition of the hydrosol in the cultivated plant with a slightly lower identification percentage of 12.56% for benzene acetaldehyde and 13.87% for (E)-β-damascenone. Previous studies on biological activity have shown that the free volatile compounds of water speedwell have significant antioxidant effect, so it is important to investigate the overall biological activity of these natural compounds. Since the same basic volatiles were identified in both the wild and cultivated species V. anagallis-aquatica, it is clear that the cultivated species contains biologically active natural products and this result makes it suitable for cultivation and further studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]