Determination of carbohydrates in Agrimonia eupatoria L. herb

In recent years, methods of treatment using medicinal plants and biologically active substances based on them have become increasingly common. Today, the search for plants with a long history of use and minor side effects is of interest to our society. The most promising for procurement and use in medical practice is a common throughout Ukraine – common agrimony (Agrimonia eupatoria L.). The presence of tannins, which are represented by two groups: condensed and hydrolyzed tannins is indicated. There is insufficient information in the literature on the biologically active substances of Agrimonia eupatoria L. The common agrimony herb contains 1.2–1.6 % of flavonoids, which belong to different subgroups. Thus, from the group of flavones apigenin, luteolin, luteolin-7-glycoside have been identified. The herb of Agrimonia eupatoria L. as an insufficiently studied plant raw material is also a promising object of study, including carbohydrate composition. The aim. The aim of our study was to determine the content of carbohydrates in aerial parts of Agrimonia eupatoria L. collected from natural habitat. Materials and methods. The determination of carbohydrates of Agrimonia eupatoria L. was carried out by gas chromatograph Agilent 6890N with a mass detector 5973 inert (Agilent Technologies, USA). The amounts of water-soluble polysaccharides and pectin substances were determined by gravimetric method. Results. Three free carbohydrates were found in the studied grass of the Agrimonia eupatoria L., namely: D-glucose, D-galactose and D-fructose, the content of which was 15.02 mg/g, 0.28 mg/g and 12.90 mg/g, respectively. In the common agrimony, after acidic hydrolysis and derivatization with acetylated aldononitriles were identified 8 compounds. The predominant ones were D-glucose, D-galactose and D-xylose. The content of water-soluble polysaccharides and pectin substances in Agrimonia eupatoria L. was determined at 2.90 % and 8.54 % of total dry weight, respectively. Conclusions. In completion, the present results of GC/MS indicated the presence of certain carbohydrates both in free and bound form in Agrimonia eupatoria L., that have important medicinal activity, which answered to the knowledge about the therapeutic activity of this analyzed plant. We established that in Agrimonia eupatoria L. herb the predominant monosaccharide compound was D-glucose: 23.88 mg/g and 15.02 mg/g among monosaccharides after hydrolysis and free monosaccharides respectively. Our findings propose that carbohydrates from the studied raw material can be used for creating drugs by the pharmaceutical industry, and could be used for the development of nutraceutical