[Morphological and molecular characterization of ephedra species found in Syria]

Ephedra is a dioecious, drought- and frost-resistant, perennial, evergreen shrub with high medicinal value due to its content of ephedrine alkaloids. It became quite clear throughout referential studies that this significant medical plant which is spontaneously widespread in Syria and there have been an increased international demand on it hasn't been studied yet. The objective of this research was study Ephedra species found in Syria, using morphological traits and molecular markers. Ephedra plants were collected from different locations of Syria. Morphological characters male flowers, ripe female cones, and the edges of leaves and sheaths bracts were observed by naked eyes and magnifier. The DNA of all genotypes was extracted and amplified using seven randomly amplified polymorphic DNA [RAPD] primers to study genetic variability at the molecular level. Morphological data showed differences between three species: E.alata, E.aphylla, E.foemina. Tested RAPD primer gave repeatable polymorphic products producing a total of 55 bands, 51 of them were polymorphic. The level of polymorphism was 92% with an average of 7.28 bands/ primer. The similarity coefficient matrix of seven Ephedra genotypes based on the data of 7 RAPD primers using the UPGMA method was used to construct a dendrogram. Two major clusters were obtained from the dendrogram belonging to studied genotypes; Cluster I and cluster II. Cluster I comprised two genotypes, Cluster II comprised the other five minor genotypes. The highest value about 0.70 of similarity was observed between genotypes D and B. The lowest value of similarity 0.18 was observed between K and B. A significant correlation was found between morphological distances, genetic distances and geographic distances of the studied genotypes

study of biochemical variability between 3 species of hyoscyamus in south of Syria

Many species of hyoscyamus genus have medicinal activities because it contains important alkaloids especially tropane alkaloids hyoscyamine and scopolamine. This study aims to determine the percentage of alkaloids in different plant organs of three species of hyoscyamus genus in south of Syria This study refer to that H. Albus rich in hyoscyamine [73% of alkaloids], H. Aureus rich in scopolamine [54%of alkaloids] but H. Reticulatus have medium percentage of hyoscyamine[16%] and scopolamine[33%].We have determined the percentage of the most important alkaloids in different organs of three species of hyoscyamus because the nature and quantity of active substances different from one organ to another and from species to another