Home – Home – Jornals – Chemistry for Sustainable Development 2020 number 5

The species of Rheum L. genus (rhubarb) have long attracted the attention of researchers as possible sources of drugs for various purposes. Mostly the underground organs of plants were studied since the main attention was paid to a group of substances specific to the species of this genus - anthraquinones and anthrons that exhibited multiple biological activity. Insufficient attention was given to the study of aboveground organs, while flowers and leaves are a valuable source of flavonoids, an equally important group of biologically active substances. Rhubarb growing both in nature and in culture in the forest-steppe region of West Siberia is characterized by a high content of flavonoids. It was found that during the period of mass flowering of wild plants from the regions of Siberia, the content of flavonoids varies within the limits for Rheum compactum 3.87-10.06 % (in flowers), 1.17-5.16 % (in leaves), for Rheum undulatum (syn. R. rhabarbarum ) 5.04-9.62 % (in flowers), 2.00-7.57 % (in leaves) per the mass of absolutely dry raw materials. In culture, R. compactum and R. undulatum retain their ability to synthesize flavonoids. Their content in the flowers of R. compactum reaches 7.68 %, in the leaves - 4.27 %, in R. undulatum , respectively, 9.43 and 4.95 %. For 10 individual R. undulatum plants , the flavonoid content is in the range 3.53-9.43 % (flowers) and 2.25-4.95 % (leaves), the variation coefficients are 35 and 24 %, respectively, which is a favourable factor for the selection of highly productive rhubarb forms. When introduced into the Novosibirsk region, all 15 tested rhubarb species, regardless of the origin of the seeds, showed the ability to synthesize a large number of flavonoids, especially in flowers, which indicates that its cultivation on an industrial scale is promising. The representatives of the Rhapontica and Palmata sections are particularly responsive to cultural conditions.