MICROCLIMATE FACTORS AND VARIABILITY OF ACTIVE PRINCIPLES INSIDE A SAME FITOCOMPLETE.
An aspect to underline of pharmacognostic and phytochemical type - which relates to environmental factors, genetic and otherwise, which influence drugs - is the variability of the phytocomplex within the same species, cultivated or spontaneous, which grows in places with a different microenvironment . We are talking about the variability that affects the quality of drugs, linked to local ecological elements and that determines large fluctuations in the quality of the phytocomplex. An example is the Rhus coriaria (Anacardiacee family) used in the Middle East for its disinfectant and digestive properties, but also cultivated in the surroundings of Ferrara, in an area close to the city, in a suburban area, in one towards the sea and in one towards the Bolognese. In relation to the different microclimate, we will expect from these plants a composition of the variable phytocomplex; this phenomenon, it should be pointed out, may affect some species, but not all, since the different plants may be more or less sensitive to these microclimatic changes. Of the Rhus coriaria are mainly used the dried fruits and aerial parts, from which an essential oil is obtained, a mixture composed predominantly of terpene molecules named beta-fellandrene, nonal, naphthalene, 2 (E) -decenal, 2 (E), 4 (Z) -decadienal and 2 (E), 4 (E) -decadienal, all of a monoterpene nature (ie, they have 10 carbon atoms). Depending on the cultivation area of Rhus coriaria, the concentrations of monoterpenes in the same quantity of phytocomplex are very variable; therefore, for the same phytocomplex, the quantitative ratio between the active principles that compose it can vary very considerably and, together with it, the quality of the drug (which can take up significantly different use projections).
The variability of drugs in relation to natural factors is equally associated with that dependent on technical and artificial elements. The artificial factors are those elements of variability of the quality of a drug, which intervene in all those phases that define the post-harvest.
Among the natural factors and artificial factors we must not forget the harvest. The collection is the element of union between the two phases, an element of conjunction that makes us understand what are the aspects to be taken into consideration for the respect of the pharmacognostic quality of the drug. The harvest - which can be carried out manually or with a mechanical aid - involves the natural source or the part of it that will become drug; it must therefore be carried out in compliance with the morphological, organographic and histological qualities that characterize it.
The collection phase is the crucial element to guarantee the integrity and quality of the drug, in full compliance with the set of characteristic elements, of an organographic, morphological and histological order, reported in the Pharmacopoeia. If the drug is not reported in the Pharmacopoeia, instead, one will have to follow those that are the experiential and ethno / drug / botanical research aspects, which researchers now have available to project a natural source from a forest to the market.
