Preliminary study on the phytochemical evolution of different Lamiaceae species based on iridoids

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