Phytochemical Diversity and Genetic Characterization of Mountain Tea (<i>Sideritis</i> sect. <i>Empedoclia</i>) from Greece
2025
Christos E. Ioannou | Eleni Liveri | Charikleia Papaioannou | Konstantina Zeliou | Virginia D. Dimaki | Aris Zografidis | Gregoris Iatrou | Panayiotis Trigas | Vasileios Papasotiropoulos | Fotini N. Lamari
Members of <i>Sideritis</i> sect. <i>Empedoclia</i> (Lamiaceae), known as ‘mountain tea’, are widely used medicinal plants. Their taxonomic classification is complex due to frequent hybridization and subtle morphological distinctions. This study examines 12 populations of eight native <i>Sideritis</i> taxa from Greece: <i>S. clandestina</i> subsp. <i>clandestina</i>, <i>S. clandestina</i> subsp. <i>peloponnesiaca</i>, <i>S. euboea</i>, <i>S. raeseri</i> subsp. <i>raeseri</i>, <i>S. raeseri</i> subsp. <i>attica</i>, <i>S. scardica</i>, <i>S. sipylea</i>, and <i>S. syriaca</i> subsp. <i>syriaca</i>. The objectives were to (1) monitor non-polar secondary metabolites (mainly terpenoids) using gas chromatography; (2) shed light on their phylogenetic relationships; (3) evaluate the correlation between genetic and chemical data. Diterpenes, particularly sideridiol, siderol, 7-epicandicandiol, and <i>ent</i>-3α,18-dihydroxy-kaur-16-ene, were the most abundant chemical compounds. Categorical Principal Component Analysis revealed that <i>S. raeseri</i> subsp. <i>attica</i> is chemically distinct, while the rest are grouped into two clusters: one comprising <i>S. clandestina</i> and <i>S. sipylea</i>, and the other including all the rest. Genetic analysis based on chloroplast DNA (<i>matK</i>, <i>psbA-trnH</i>, <i>trnL-F</i>), showed that <i>S. sipylea</i> and <i>S. syriaca</i> subsp. <i>syriaca</i> were the most phylogenetically distant groups. Our study enhances the understanding of <i>Sideritis</i> chemovariability and phylogeny, supporting also taxonomic, authentication, and breeding efforts.
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