ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Effects of Trace Elements on Polyphenolic
Compounds in Millefolii Herba
Marcin Szymański1, Ewa Witkowska-Banaszczak1, Natalia Klak1,
Karolina Marciniak2, Tomasz Wołowiec2, Arkadiusz Szymański2
More details
Hide details
1Department of Pharmacognosy, Poznań University of Medical Sciences,
Święcickiego 4, 60-781 Poznań, Poland
2Faculty of Chemistry, Adam Mickiewicz University,
Umultowska 89, 61-614 Poznań, Poland
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2014;23(2):459-466
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
Achillea millefolium L. is commonly found as a ruderal plant in Europe and northern parts of Asia and
North America, in the temperate climate zone. Numerous phytochemical studies into this species have shown
that it is rich in pharmacologically active compounds. The main groups of chemical compounds present in
yarrow consist of terpenes, polyacetylenes, flavonoids, coumarins, pyrrolidine alkaloids (such as stachydrine
and betonicine), and tannins. This study presents the results of research into the content of select elements and
the total of polyphenolic compounds, including the total of phenolic acids. An attempt has been made to determine
the correlation between the presence of polyphenolic compounds and the investigated elements.
Spearman’s rank correlation between the total of phenolic acids and polyphenolic compounds and the selected
elements show that the content of phenolic acids was mainly related to barium, boron, titanium, and iron,
whereas the content of polyphenolic compounds was connected with aluminium, boron, chromium, molybdenum,
and iron. This was proven by the value of the correlation coefficient, which was greater than 0.6000.
In order to illustrate “the data structure” a cluster analysis was used. The total of phenolic acids turned out to
be mostly related to the total of polyphenolic compounds, which make direct and the least distant connection
with barium, and only then with other metals. These interactions do not necessarily have to be reflected by the
values of the rank correlation coefficients as they are typical for linear correlation, while the studied effects
may be correlations of a higher degree.