The aim of this study was to evaluate the morphological, chemical, and genetic similarity of species belonging to the genus Gypsophila L. The analysis included 7 Gypsophila species with potential use in the pharmaceutical industry for saponin production. | Turkish Journal of Botany Turk J Bot (2018) 42: 257-270 © TÜBİTAK doi: Research Article Morphological, chemical, and genetic diversity of Gypsophila L. (Caryophyllaceae) species and their potential use in the pharmaceutical industry 1 2 2 2, Barbara KOŁODZIEJ , Sylwia OKOŃ , Aleksandra NUCIA , Tomasz OCIEPA *, 1 1 3 4 Katarzyna LUCHOWSKA , Danuta SUGIER , Reneta GEVRENOVA , Max HENRY 1 Department of Industrial and Medicinal Plants, University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Lublin, Poland 2 Institute of Plant Genetics, Breeding, and Biotechnology, University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Lublin, Poland 3 Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Medical University of Sofia, Sofia, Bulgaria 4 UMR 7565 CNRS MoBAT Team, University of Lorraine, Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy, France Received: Accepted/Published Online: Final Version: Abstract: The aim of this study was to evaluate the morphological, chemical, and genetic similarity of species belonging to the genus Gypsophila L. The analysis included 7 Gypsophila species with potential use in the pharmaceutical industry for saponin production. In order to assess the variation of the morphological traits, a number of morphological characteristics have been determined (including the number of lateral roots, diameter and total root length, average plant height, number of shoots and their diameter, number of branches on the shoot, length and width of leaves, and fresh and air-dried weight of aerial and underground parts of plants), while prosaponin content was determined as the chemical trait. Gypsogenin 3-O-glucuronide and quillaic acid 3-O-glucuronide were the dominant prosaponins determined in the Gypsophila roots (amounting up to mg g-1 dry extract in G. scorzonerifolia Ser. and mg g–1 dry extract in G. acutifolia Spreng., respectively). Moreover, a variation analysis at the molecular level was carried out based on .
