Phenolic Compounds in Centaurea rupestris Tissues and Their Antiphytoviral Activity

Quantitative and qualitative analysis of phenolic compounds in tissue extracts from Centaurea rupestris L. as well as their antiphytoviral activity against Tomato bushy stunt virus was performed. Extracts of flowers, leaves and roots from C. rupestris growing in the wild, as well as extracts from shoots, tissue consisting of callus and shoots and undifferentiated callus grown in vitro, were tested. Between tested extracts predominantly quantitative and only several qualitative differences in phenolics were detected by high performance liquid chromatography. The highest amounts of quercetagetin 3’-methylether-7-O-ß-D-glucopyranoside and quercetin were detected in flowers while in leaves the highest amounts of luteolin, caffeic and p-coumaric acid were detected. Except for roots, antiphytoviral activity of all other extracts was high, inducing virus inhibition, ranging from 43 to 90 %. Simultaneous application of quercetin, caffeic or p-coumaric acid with virus decreased the number of lesions indicating that these substances contribute to the antiphytoviral activity of C. rupestris extracts. (doi: 10.5562/cca2272)