An investigation on phytochemical components and antioxidant activity of Luctuca undulata Ledeb. in 5 natural habitats of Iran

Background: Lactuca undulata is an annual herb belongs to Asteraceae family.  Cichoric acid is the main component of Lactuca undulata which has different property in food and pharmaceutical industries. Objective: The goal of current research was to compare phytochemical components and antioxidant activity of Lactuca undulata which was collected from different regions of Iran. Methods: For this purpose, stem of plants were collected from Quom, Biarjemand, Mirzabiloo in north Khorasan, Firoozkooh and Damghan-Cheshmeh Ali during regenerative phase. Chicoric, Chlorogenic and Caffeic acid was evaluated by HPLC methods. Also total phenol, flavonoid and tannin contents were assayed. The antioxidant activity was measured by using DPPH assay. Results: The obtained results revealed that samples collected from Firoozkooh and Quom accumulated the highest amount of cichoric acid (3.5 mg/g Dry weight) and caffeic acid (1.26 mg/g Dry weight), respectively. Meanwhile the amount of total phenol was varied from 13.53 (in Firoozkooh collected samples) to 18.86 mg/g Dry weight (in Quom collected samples). The results showed that there was significant difference in total flavonoids (P˂ 5%) and total tannin (P˂ 1%) amount among samples collected from different regions. On the other hands, the highest and the lowest antioxidant activity was observed in samples collected from Quom and Biarjemand regions, respectively. Conclusion: The current data showed that Lactuca undulata collected from Firoozkooh contain the highest amount of cichoric acid and as an Iranian native plant can be a suitable source of cichoric acid production.