Evaluation of pharmaceutical compounds at vegetative and reproductive growth stages of Marrubium vulgare, a medicinal plant to cleanse the body

Abstract

Marrubium vulgareis a plant with high bioactive potential. The rich bioactive compounds of medicinal horehound, as well as their antioxidant activity have led to its wider application in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and food industries. The present work aimed to determine the phenolic compounds, total phenols, flavonoids, and antioxidant activity at vegetative and reproductive growth stages of Marrubium vulgare. The experiments were performed in Eram Garden with five replications and using SPSS software (v. 13) and Mann–Whitney U-Test at p ≤ 0.01. The total content of flavonoids and main phenolic compounds increased when plants collected at vegetative stage. On the other hand, the highest vanillin content was observed in full flowering stage. Overall, this study can provide useful information about the best harvest period for horehound to produce the desired compounds for use in the food, pharmaceutical, and plant industries.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Bioactive compounds
• flavonoids
• harvest time
• Marrubium vulgare

Acknowledgements

First of all, I would like to thank the grace of God for completing this work and the authors wish to thank Eram botanical garden and Ahmad Reza Ghasemi for support of this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.