The Morphological Features and UV-VIS Analysis of Some Taxonomic Markers of Genus Viscum

  • Simona Ioana VICAŞ University of Oradea
  • Dumitrita RUGINĂ University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine
  • Stelian PANTEA University of Oradea
  • Carmen SOCACIU University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Cluj-Napoca
Keywords: Viscum album, Morphology, chlorophylls, phenolic acid, flavonoid

Abstract

European mistletoe (Viscum album L., family Santalaceae) is native from Europe and is an evergreen, perennial, hemiparasitic shrub that lives on a wide range of woody plants species. The mistletoe has a number of biological effects, such as anticancer, antimycobacterial, apoptosis – inducing, antiviral, and immunomodulatory activities. In the first part of this study, we present the floral and vegetative characters of five varieties of Viscum album ssp. album that are growing on five different host trees (Acer campestre, Mallus domestica, Fraxinus excelsior, Populus nigra and Robinia pseudoacacia). In the second part, we recorded the UV-VIS spectrum of methanolic extract (400 to 700 nm), to determined the level of chlorophyll a and b, and also the ratio of A280/A340 (to identify which the bioactive compounds is predominantly). We find the diference between the stem and leaves from the mistletoe that are growing on the same host, and also between the mistletoe that are growing on different host trees.