Biochemical and antioxidant responses of borage seedlings in saline environments

Although borage [Borago officinalis L.] is a valuable medicinal plant, no information is available on the responses of this plant to salinity. For this reason, it is necessary to determine responses of this plant to salinity. Since germination and early growth stage is one of the most critical phases of plant life under salinity condition; this experiment was conducted to determine some responses of borage to salinity at the seedling stage. This experiment was laid out in a completely randomized design with three replications and four salinity treatments, including distilled water [EC=0.0dS m-1] and three saline water conditions with EC of 5.0, 10.0 and 15.0 dSm-1. With increasing EC, the content of free proline, soluble carbohydrates and proteins were increased. Moreover, the activities of superoxide dismutase [SOD], peroxidase [POD], catalase [CAT], and polyphenol oxidase [PPO] enzymes were significantly increased. Although seedlings dry weight and emergence percentage were declined with increasing EC, the seedlings had markedly growth/survival under salinity conditions. The survival and little reduction in emergence under salinity conditions [12.5%] indicated that borage was a salt tolerant species at the early growth stage. This tolerant is certainly due to the enhancement of antioxidant enzymes activities and compatible solutes content

Evaluation of phytochemical and production potential of borage [Borago officinalis L.] during the growth cycle

Borage [Borago officinalis L.] is a valuable medicinal plant with a high content of gamma linolenic acid. It has an important place in Iranian traditional medicine. Although the aerial parts of this plant are extensively used in treatment of diseases, detailed knowledge of the active constituent changes in these parts is not readily available. In addition the most data that has been reported are about oil seed of borage and its properties. Thus, the study about changes in chemical composition/secondary metabolites at different growth stages is necessary. For this reason, in the present research the chemical composition including total phenol, total alkaloids, mucilage, total ash, acid-insoluble ash and tannins of the aerial parts were evaluated during different growth stages of borage. Results indicated that at each corresponding stage of development, starting from seedling stage until flowering stage the chemical compositions of borage aerial parts hadn't significantly differences. Only, there were significant differences [p < 0.01] in the total ash and acid-insoluble ash and these two parameters were significantly increased with the development of plants, from seedling until flowering stage. In general, at all stage, the aerial parts showed similar quality in respect of chemical compositions. Therefore the best harvesting time of the aerial parts is the flowering stage, because we achieved the highest fresh and dry weight at this stage

[Review on borage [valuable medicinal plant and the richest plant source of gamma linolenic acid]]

Borage [Borago officinalis L.] is a valuable medicinal and culinary herb belonging to family Boraginaceae. The seed oil of borage is the richest plant source of gamma linolenic acid [GLA]. GLA is commonly used as nutritional supplement and pharmaceutical prescription to control heart disease, diabetes, atopic eczema, arthritis, and multiple sclerosis. Therefore borage is one of the important medicinal plants, which can play important roles in treatment of human diseases. For these reasons, recently, borage has been the subject of increasing agricultural interest. In this article we review the various aspects of borage including botanical characterizations, cultivation and production, medicinal uses in traditional medicine and clinical uses of it in relation with some clinical studies, etc