Ricerc@Sapienza

In this work, an interesting potential application of phytochemistry is reported. In particular, we employed the
Sporne diagrams to provide information about the evolution of some different Lamiaceae species in relation to
their content in secondary metabolites. In more details, fifteen species belonging to six different genera were
studied i.e. Ajuga L., Galeopsis L., Melittis L., Sideritis L., Stachys L. and Teucrium L. The selected secondary
metabolites were iridoids because of their wide occurrence and distribution within all the family, thus providing
a more accurate and general overview. Nineteen different compounds of this class were identified in the studied
species. The aim of this work was to verify if the evolutionary data available in literature for the studied species
and based on molecular studies, matched with those obtained from a more phytochemical approach or not. The
final objective was to ascertain a correspondence between these two opposite methods. The results of this study
clearly showed that, only in some cases, this correspondence was present. This may suggest the possibility to use
both methods for drawing phylogenetic trees of plants. Anyway, this study is not general and is quite limited in
studied species and in collection areas and does not intend to affirm its absolute accuracy even though it may be
a good starting point for future researches in this field.