Pharmacognostıcal Investıgatıons Oprunus Mahaleb Oıl and Its Kernels

Abstract

Medicinal plants are getting worthy all over the world due to their therapeutic usage. Among medicinal plants in Turkey, Prunus mahaleb L. ( syn. Cerasus mahaleb L. Mill.) is commonly known as mahlep, mehlep, idris agac, pis agac, in Turkey and its kernels are used for medicinal and nutritional purposes. Its oil also has a valuable important in medicinal and industrial purposes. Each step in collection and obtaining the kernels from the field are investigated and reported in detail. The results of the nutrition values of the kernels were given as carbohydrate (32.36%), fat (31.80%), protein (27.70%), ash (4.50%) and humidity (3.64%). Antimicrobial activities were determined using the micro dilution method against the bacteria (E.coli ATCC 25922, E. faecalis ATCC 29212, S. aureus ATCC 29213) and the fungi (C. albicans ATCC 90028, C. krusei ATCC 6258, C. parapsilosis ATCC 90018) and found no statistically significant results. The kernels are found safe enough and toxicity can be seen as dose dependant in the in vitro cytotoxicity assay. The fatty acid compositions of the oil were determined by GC-MS and GC. The main fatty acids of Prunus mahaleb kernels are found as oleic (34.5%), linoleic (31.0%) and α-eleostearic (24.0%) which shows that ratio of saturated and unsaturated fatty acid are good for medicinal and nutritional aspect.