It is well known the importance of studying the mineral content of plants, as essential and indispensable nutritional components for their good physiological functioning and going along the trophic chain, of animals and humans, based on the content of mineral elements. As a result of the demographic growth, in the last period of time, the concerns regarding the identification of new food resources, on the one hand, and the establishment of sustainable principles for the management of the existing ones, on the other hand, have increased. Thyme, like many other genera belonging to the Lamiaceae family, has economic and pharmaceutical importance, being intensively studied from a chemical point of view. In the paper, the results regarding the content in microelements (Fe, Zn, Mn, Cr, Cu, Ni) are analyzed in 17 wild populations of thyme, compared with a cultivated population (Th. vulgaris). The samples were analyzed using the atomic absorption spectroscopy method (AAS). The Fe content varied widely, depending on the place of origin and the analyzed species, reaching maximum values in the cultivated population Th. vulgaris (486 mg/kg), exceeding the wild populations, with only one exception, Th dacicus harvested from the Lescovita area (564 mg/kg). Likewise, the chromium content for the cultivated population, reached high values (0.849 mg/kg), compared to the wild populations, being surpassed only by Th. pulegioides (1.250 mg/kg), collected from the Pojejena area. For all the other microelements analyzed, the values recorded for the cultivated population, did not exceed the values of the wild populations.

microelements, atomic absorbion spectroscopy (AAS), medicinal plants

biology

Presentation: poster