Antiviral Activity of Secondary Metabolites of Teucrium Species

Unefficiency of chemical treatments and recent plant protection that is focused on natural products, have pointed the importance of finding natural substances that can help in a control of plant virus diseases. Current knowledge about the antiviral effect

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Antiviral Activity of Secondary Metabolites of Teucrium Species Elma Vuko, Nada Bezić, Marija Nazlić, and Valerija Dunkić

Abstract  Unefficiency of chemical treatments and recent plant protection that is focused on natural products, have pointed the importance of finding natural substances that can help in a control of plant virus diseases. Current knowledge about the antiviral effects of essential oils, although limited, indicates the potential of these secondary metabolites to control or at least reduce the spread of viral infection. Essential oils isolated form Teucrium species showed antiviral activity in tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) and cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) infected plants. The aim of this chapter is to present findings dealing with antiphytoviral potential of selected species of genus Teucrium and to improve the knowledge about possible application of essential oils for the prevention of diseases caused by plant viruses. Essential oil of Teucrium arduini applied on the leaves of local host plants, significantly reduced the number of lesions on both TMV and CMV infected plants. Aside from Teucrium arduini, four additional Teucrium species (T. montanum, T. polium, T. chamaedrys and T. flavum) are also source of bioactive molecules with antiphytoviral activity against CMV infection. This promising biological activity of Teucrium species opens new area of research that could help in a control of virus diseases of plants. Keywords  Teucrium · Essential oil · Antiphytoviral activity · CMV · TMV · β-caryophyllene · Caryophyllene oxide

Abbreviations CMV Cucumber mosaic virus EO Essential oil TMV Tobacco mosaic virus

E. Vuko · N. Bezić · M. Nazlić · V. Dunkić (*) Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Split, Split, Croatia e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 M. Stanković (ed.), Teucrium Species: Biology and Applications, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52159-2_11

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11.1  Introduction The aromatic plants produce a diverse array of organic compounds, which are known as secondary metabolites. Secondary metabolites are often referred as specialized metabolites since it is often impossible to distinguish primary and secondary metabolic reactions. Essential oils are secondary metabolites that are important for life and survival plants for numerous reasons, such as physiological function of growth, ecological function and development, and resistance against diseases and insects (Wink 2003; Gershenzon and Dudareva 2007). Xerophyte plants produce essential oils in response to the specific conditions of life, such as hypersensitivity reaction to the temperature cross flow and water stress (Kremer et al. 2012). Numerous aromatic species are rich in strongly-bioactive phenolic compounds. Since ancient times, aromatic plants have been used as herbal formulations in diverse forms, like tinctures, teas, powders and poultices, for their growing interest as alternative therapies for the prevention of various diseases (Bhuwan et al. 2015). Biological effec