CHLOROPHYLL AND CAROTENOIDS PIGMENTS FROM MISTLETOE (Viscum album) LEAVES USING DIFFERENT SOLVENTS

Abstract. European mistletoe (Viscum album L., family Santalaceae) is native from Europe and is an evergreen, perennial, hemiparasitic shrub that lives on a wide range of woody plants species. In the first part of this study we present the area, length and width of the leaves of five varieties of Viscum album subsp. album that are growing on five different host trees (Acer campestre, Mallus domestica, Fraxinus excelsior, Populus nigra and Robinia pseudoacacia), in order to observe if there are vegetative morphology changes within the same specie (V. album) due to host plant. In the second part, chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and the total amounts of carotenoids in mistletoe extracts, that was harvesting on February were determined. The buffered aqueous 80% acetone, DMF and methanol were used as solvents. The contribution of these solvents to the extraction of assimilatory pigments and the time of extraction (24, 48 and 72 hours) was examined comparatively. We find, also, the difference between the mistletoe that are growing on different host trees. The highest level of total chlorophyll (a + b), after 48 hours of extraction, were observed in the case of VaM extract, in all the solvents used (21.92 mg/g fresh leaves, in the case of methanol; 20.45 mg/g fresh leaves, in the case of acetone and 16.00 mg/g fresh leaves in the case of DMF). The low concentration of pigments were recorded in the case of VaP extract (15.23 mg/g fresh leaves in methanol extract). It was observed that methanol is the best solvent for chlorophyll, while acetone is a better solvent for the carotenoids