Comparative analysis of the chemical composition of Heliantus tuberosus L. growing in Serbia and Romania

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Helianthus tuberosus L. ( Jerusalem artichoke) belongs to the Asteraceae family , genus Heliathus . The plant is growing in Serbia and Romania, as native species. The most valuable constituent is inulin, which together with other constituents forms unique content of such plant material. Inulin has effect on reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases; it acts beneficially in different gastrointestinal conditions possessing a prebiotic role, which showed to be important in prevention and/or alleviation of the osteoporosis progress. The aim of this study was comparison of the chemical composition of Heliantus tuberosus L . tubers growing at two different geographic area on Balcan peninsula, namely in Serbia and in Romania. We have determined content of eight main components in both herbal samples: total proteins, flavonoids, polyphenolic carboxylic acids, reducing sugars, total carbohydrates, antioxidant, inulin and ascorbic acid and calculated a caloric value of heral samples. The level of all investigated compounds, except of the total carbohydrates and antioxidant, was slightly higher in the plant growing in Romania than in the plant growing in Serbia. Since the differences in the content of both materials are very small, we propose that both materials could be considered as suitable raw plant material for further processing. The caloric value of plant growing in Serbia was found to be slightly higher than caloric value of the one growing in Romania. The both herbal samples are good source of inulin and represents valuable raw plant material for further processing.