Mehdi Rahimmalek

Isfahan University of Technology | IUT · Department of Agronomy and Plant Breeding

Salinity is one of the major abiotic factors limiting crop production worldwide. To assess salinity stress tolerance of wild (Hordeum vulgare ssp. spontaneum L.) and cultivated (H. vulgare ssp. vulgare L.) barley genotypes, a two-year field experiment was carried out. Plant height, days to heading, days to anthesis, days to maturity, spike length,...

Barley is used as a model cereal to decipher salt tolerance mechanisms due to its simpler genome than wheat and enhanced salt tolerance compared to rice and wheat. In the present study, RNA-Seq based transcriptomic profiles were compared between salt-tolerant wild (Hordeum spontaneum, genotype no. 395) genotype and salt-sensitive cultivated (H. vul...

Perovskia species are considered as valuable ornamental plants. In the present study, the enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants were evaluated in P. atriplicifolia, and P. abrotanoides in response to water deficit stress. The root harvesting was performed after 0, 3, 5, 7, and 9 days exposure to stress. In both species, total phenolics content,...

High-temperature stress at the reproductive stage poses a substantial constraint on cereal production worldwide. This study was conducted to assess tolerance to terminal high-temperature stress in 45 wild (Hordeum vulgare ssp. spontaneum) genotypes, four cultivars (H. vulgare ssp. vulgare), 98 F 3 and 79 BC 1 F 2 families derived from hybridization...

The development of salt‐tolerant genotypes is key to a better utilization of salinized irrigated lands. Given the relatively low genetic diversity within the cultivated wheats for salt tolerance, exploring the Aegilops cylindrica's genetic diversity for salt tolerance is thus crucial to breed wheat for saline environments. In the current study, whe...

Breast cancer is the most common carcinoma in women, and natural products would be effective preventing some side effects of cancer treatment. In the present study, cytotoxic activities of different Iranian Chrysanthemum morifolium cultivars were evaluated in human breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7) and human lymphocytes. A systems pharmacology appro...

Salvia abrotanoides Kar. and Salvia yangii B.T. Drew are medicinal and aromatic plants belonging to the subgenus Perovskia and used as herbal medicines in Asia. Derivatives of caffeic acid, mainly rosmarinic acid (RA), are the major phenolic compounds identified in these plants. Understanding the factors and molecular mechanisms regulating the accu...

The production of self-pollinated plants could be important for improving medicinal plants secondary metabolites. In this study, 11 Thymus populations from eight species were evaluated to determine the effect of self and open pollination on agro-morphological characteristics, total phenolic content (TPC), essential oil (EO) content, and EO componen...

Twenty-eight populations of ajowan ( Trachyspermum ammi L.) were evaluated for morphological traits and oil yield in two consecutive years. Then, selected ajowan populations that revealed medium and high oil yield and higher seed weight in two years were selected for further studies. These were assessed for physiological traits, total phenolic and...

Populations derived from intraspecific crosses within two mint species of Mentha spicata and M. longifolia, were studied for genetic and phenotypic coefficients of variation, heritabilities, and genetic advances in various traits including plant height, fresh and dry weights, number of branches per plant, plant canopy diameter, leaf area, and essen...

The Apiaceae family includes many valuable medicinal species. The Phenyl propanoid pathway is a source of many of critical secondary metabolites. Hence, the identification of involved genes will improve a better understanding of their medicinal properties. The purpose of this research was to obtain a genomic DNA sequence of two important genes incl...

In the present research, inter and intra genetic variability of 77 accessions belonging to 11 Thymus species were assessed using eight SRAP primer combinations. High polymorphism (98.3%) was observed in the studied species. The cluster analysis classified Thymus species into five main groups. According to molecular variance (AMOVA) analysis, 63.14%...

Aegilops cylindrica Host is one of the most salt-tolerant species in the Triticeae tribe. Amphidiploid plants derived from hybridization of ‘Roshan’ × Aegilops cylindrica and ‘Chinese Spring’ × Ae. cylindrica genotypes contrasting in salt tolerance were assessed for their morpho-physiological responses and the expression patterns of two genes relat...

Achillea filipendulina is a ornamental plant with various biological and pharmaceutical properties. Essential oil (EO) yield and composition, polyphenolic content, antioxidant activity and anatomical traits were assessed during four developmental phases viz. five leaves appearance, sprouting, 50% and 100% flowering. The yield of EOs ranged from 0.2...

Thymus is one of the most important genera of the Lamiaceae family. This work was performed to assess inter and intra species variation, which is an indispensable prerequisite for the selection and the exploitation of the germplasm, using yield, secondary metabolites, and ploidy level criteria. Nineteen Iranian populations belonging to 11 Thymus sp...

Subgenus Perovskia of the extended genus of Salvia comprises several Central Asian medicinal and aromatic species, of which S. yangii and S. abrotanoides are the most widespread. These plants are cultivated in Europe as robust ornamentals, and several cultivars are available. However, their medicinal potential remains underutilized because of limit...

The Lamiaceae family is a major source of species among medicinal plants that are highly valued for their antioxidant properties and multiple pharmaceutical uses in folk medicine. Satureja, Origanum, and Dracocephalum are some of the major genera belonging to the Lamiaceae family. The present study used seven Iranian endemic species of the Lamiacea...

In this study, chemical profiling, phenolic and flavonoid contents, as well as the antibacterial and antioxidant activity of 17 Iranian Chrysanthemum morifolium cultivars were evaluated. The high performance liquid chromatography analysis revealed the presence of eight compounds with the major constituents including chlorogenic acid (0–934.7 mg/100...

In the present study, the diversity of 11 Thymus species was assessed using molecular and morphological markers. Essential oil content and morphological traits were also investigated during two agronomic years. The result of the analysis of variance showed considerable differences among morphological traits. In the first and second years, the essen...

Azolla filiculoides is an aquatic fern native to tropical regions, and because of its unique composition, it was subjected to integrated biorefineries for biochemicals and bioenergy production. The compositional analysis showed that its raw biomass contained 41.4 % carbohydrates, comprising galactan, glucan, and arabinan, 12 % lignin, and 10.3 % in...

Aegilops cylindrica Host is one of the most salt-tolerant species in the Triticeae tribe. Amphidiploid plants derived from hybridization of Roshan by Aegilops cylindrica and Chinese Spring by Ae. cylindrica genotypes contrasting in salt tolerance were assessed for their morpho-physiological responses and the expression patterns of two genes related...

Thermal stress at the reproductive stage poses a substantial constraint on cereal production worldwide. A two-year field study was conducted to assess tolerance to terminal heat stress in cultivated (Hordeum vulgare ssp. vulgare L.) and wild (H. vulgare ssp. spontaneum L.) barley genotypes using phenological and agronomic traits as well as selectio...

Mentha is one of the most important genera of the Lamiaceae with a wide geographical distribution and considerable commercial importance. The general aim of this work was to group 34 accessions from four species of mint using ISSR molecular markers to select some accessions to estimate the potential cross-ability of mints valuable in breeding and p...

Thyme (Thymus spp.) is a valuable genus of Lamiaceae family with different pharmaceutical and food properties. Thymol has also been considered as the major essential oil compound in most of the studied Thymus species. In this research, the gene encoding γ-terpinene synthase (Ttps2) was sequenced in T. vulgaris and in eight Iranian thymes including...

Ducrosia anethifolia has been considered as a traditional aromatic vegetable of Apiaceae. In this study, 55 accessions of D. anethifolia, which belonged to 11 populations, were collected from different geographical regions of Iran including South, Center, North-West and South-East. Collected accessions were cultivated based on a randomized complete...

Salinity tolerance of 47 wild barley genotypes and six barley cultivars was evaluated under control and salinity stress (300 mM NaCl) conditions. Shoot and root dry weight (DW), plant height, membrane stability index (MSI), relative water content, survival rate, leaf malondialdehyde (MDA) and proline contents, root and leaf Na, K, Ca and K/Na ratio...

Knowledge of genetic diversity and relatedness of cultivars; is essential for a successful breeding scheme. The present study was conducted to assess the genetic diversity of 30 Iranian Chrysanthemum morifolium cultivars using sequence-related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) molecular markers and morphological traits. For this purpose, 30 cultivars w...

The essential oils and antioxidant activity of four Thymus species were evaluated under five light spectra (namely, red, blue, red-blue, white, and greenhouse condition). The highest essential oil yield (4.17%) was observed under red light in T. migricus, while the lowest (1.05%) was observed in T. carmanicus under greenhouse conditions. Light qual...

Thymus, which includes around 215 species, is an important genus of the Lamiaceae family due to its production of secondary compounds. It comprises several species which are native to the Mediterranean region and can serve as valuable medicinal plants, because of their biological and pharmacological properties. In fact, the local populations often...

Essential oil composition, phenolic, flavonoid and antioxidant activity of Kelussia odoratissima populations evaluated from the samples obtained from different regions in Isfahan (Keloose and Fereydunshahr) and Kohgiluye (Dishmook) provinces of Iran. The relationships between the compounds and climatic factors were also evaluated. Essential oil yie...

From biomedicine point of view, the application of medicinal plants to prevent and treat diabetes via intervention in biomolecule degradation mechanisms, is an important issue. Achillea L. belongs to Asteraceae family and have traditional properties with different applications in folk medicine. A. pachycephala is one of the valuable species of Achi...

Understanding the reproductive system of mint (Mentha spp.) through self or open pollination is critical for its improvement. In this study, fresh and dry weight, essential oil yield, essential oil composition, flavonoid and phenolic contents of 12 mint populations derived from self and open-pollination, plus their parents belonging to two species,...

Jasmonic acid (JA)is regarded as endogenous regulator that plays important roles in regulating stress responses, plant growth, and development. Salicylic acid (SA)has been identified as an important signaling element involved in establishing the local and systemic disease resistance response of plants after pathogen attack. A field experiment was c...

Response surface methodology was applied for optimization of alcoholic extraction of Asafoetida gum from Ferula assa-foetida L. The effects of time, temperature, ethanol to gum ratio and pH on the purity and physico-chemical properties of that gum were investigated. Extraction parameters significantly affected purity (ranged from 55.5 to 76.4%), pr...

Stachys lavandulifolia Vahl. is one of the most important medicinal plants with different applications in pharmaceutical and sanitary industries as well as high distribution in Iran. In order to assess the morphological variation and cutting times in S. lavandulifolia genotypes, an experiment was carried out in a randomized block design with three...

Terminal heat stress is one of the major constraints of cereal production. A two-year field investigation was performed to assess the response of Hordeum vulgare ssp. spontaneum genotypes to terminal heat stress using gas-exchange parameters, photosystem efficiency, proline accumulation, cell membrane leakage, and grain yield traits. Results of ana...

Myrtle is one of the most important medicinal plants because of its application in pharmaceutical and food industries. In this study, the diversity of Iranian myrtle populations was assessed through morphological, molecular markers and essential oil content. High variation in essential oil content and morphological traits was obtained among populat...

The present study was designed to evaluate water-induced alterations in non-enzymatic antioxidants as evidenced by the qualitative and quantitative properties of polyphenols and the molecular mechanism of phenylpropanoid pathway by the expression patterns of key genes (pal, chi, and f3 h) in two Chrysanthemum morifoilum cultivars. In addition, cert...

Variations in essential oil yield and oil composition of Thymus kotschyanus Boiss. & Hohen populations originating in different locations across Iran were evaluated using hydrodistillation and GC/MS analysis. The aerial parts of the plants varied in their essential oil yields from 1 to 1.41% across the populations. Under optimum distillation and an...

In this study, morpho-phenological traits were investigated in two species of Perovskia. The highest and the lowest height, fresh and dry weight were observed in P.atriplicifolia from Sistan & baluchestan Province and P.abrotanoides from Khorasan Razavi Province respectively. Populations belonged to Isfahan Province (PAbAY and PAbGH) have the highe...

In the present research, essential oil composition, bioactive compounds, anatomical and antioxidant activity of Achillea aucheri was investigated at four phenological stages. Essential oil yield ranged from 0.1% (five leaves appearance stage) to 0.7% (full flowering stage). So, oils from plants harvested at the full flowering stage provide higher e...

Crop wild relatives adaptively diversified for environmental stresses are valuable resources for crop breeding especially for climate change scenarios, supposedly worsening drought and heat conditions. In this study, genetic variation of 54 barley genotypes comprised of 47 H. vulgare spp. spontaneum genotypes collected from west of Iran along with...

Ferula asafoetida is an herbaceous, perennial and monocarpic species of the Apiaceae family with medicinal properties. In this study, the genetic diversity of F. asafetida populations was assessed using SCoT and SRAP molecular markers. Nine SCoT and nine SRAP primer combinations amplified 211 and 194 bands, showing 96.07% and 92.87% of polymorphism...

A comparative study was carried out on the methanolic extracts from six Achillea species and the examined polyphenols from these plants on the formation of advanced glycation end‐products (AGE) in vitro. A. pachycephala which was richer in flavonoids (15 mg quercetin/g W) and phenolics (111.10 mg tannic acid/g DW) with substantial antioxidant activ...

Essential oil (EO) composition, phenolic content, and antioxidant activity were investigated in 17 P. abrotanoides populations collected from different geographical regions in Iran. The highest (3.61%) and lowest (1.25%) essential oil yields were measured in populations from Semnan Province (PSESM2) and PISKS from Isfahan Province, respectively. GC...

Total flavonoid content (TFC) and Cyanidin‐3‐glucoside (Cyd‐3‐glu) of seed and seed coat extract of sixteen genotypes from five species of Carthamus were studied and their major polyphenolic compounds and antioxidant activity of the seed coat extracts were determined using HPLC analysis and DPPH assay, respectively. Additionally, fatty acids compos...

Different levels of irrigation regimes (20%, 50% and 80% depletion) were applied to evaluate polyphenolic compounds and physiological traits in leaves and heads of artichoke. According to HPLC analysis, chlorogenic acid was the most abundant phenolic acid in leaves (481 mg/Kg DW) and the second most abundant compound (after caffeic acid) in heads (...

In this study, 63 accessions of Perovskia abrotanoides from 16 populations were collected from different parts of Iran. Four accessions from P. atriplicifolia were also included specifically from southeastern parts of the state. Evaluations of the genetic variation by morphological characteristics and ISSR markers revealed a high morphological vari...

Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) is an annual herbaceous plant, cultivated mainly for the seed which is used for edible oil extraction and bird feeding. This study was designed to evaluate the safety of a new pigmented variety of safflower (A82) seeds. The results showed that oral administration of A82 seeds significantly increased the body weig...

Background: Protein glycation and glycotoxicity belong to the main oxidative-stress related complications in diabetes. Perovskia species are used in Asian folk medicine as antidiabetic herbs. Objective: The aim of this study was to verify the ability of the methanolic extract from Perovskia atriplicifolia Benth. roots to diminish glycation of al...

The morphological traits, essential oil composition, and anthocyanin content of 17 Iranian C. morifolium cultivars were evaluated. Based on Shannon diversity index (I), such morphological characters as flower head diameter, ray floret, shape of apex, and main color of ray floret revealed more variability than the other traits. Significant genotypic...

A choice test study was conducted in the field from 2014 to 2016 to determine the mechanism(s) involved in resistance to the safflower fly (Acanthiophilus helianthi, Diptera, Tephritidae) in germplasm of the wild safflower species with pigmented (Carthamus oxyacanthus, C. lanatus, and C. glaucus) and white (C. palaestinus) seed coats, some white-se...

In recent years, the application of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) has been considered to be an important strategy for improving crop yield and quality. In the present study, a factorial experiment based on a complete randomized design with two factors was performed to investigate the effect of AMF and water stress on the essential oil (EO) com...

Background: Bilehar or Kandal koohi (Dorema aucheri) which belongs to umbeliferae family is an endemic species of Iran. In respect to the extinction risk of this valuable species, until now no study has been performed to evaluate the effect of climate features on different traits in D. aucheri populations in different geographical areas. Objective...

گیاهان سرده بومادران( Achillea) از تیره کاسني (Asteraceae) از گياهان مهم دارويي و زينتي محسوب مي¬شوند. گونه بومادران هزاربرگ یکی از گونه های مهم بومادران و منبع غنی از آنتی اکسیدان محسوب می¬شود. در این پژوهش، بخش¬های هوایی پنج ژنوتیپ بومادران هزار برگ از کندوان ایران (Amk) ، ليتواني (AmlitR )، انگليس (AmUK)، اروميه ایران (Amo) و همدان ایران (Amh )...

In this study, the essential oil (EO) composition, flavonoid and phenolic contents, and antioxidant activities of fourteen Thymus accessions belonging to ten species were evaluated. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) analysis revealed the presence of 38 compounds with the major constituents including thymol (12.4–79.74%), carvacrol (4.37–...

Variability in morphological traits, phenolic content, and antioxidant activity of 15 populations of Iranian Ferula species collected from natural habitats in different regions of Iran were investigated. Total Phenolic Content (TPC) of fruit extracts varied from 12.77 to 120.72 mg tannic acid per 1g dry weight. Total flavonoid of fruits extract var...

The effect of different NaCl concentrations (control, 2, 4 and 6 dS m-1) and three harvesting times in different seasons including spring (9 April), summer (5 July) and fall (23 September) was evaluated on essential oil yield, composition, phenolic, flavonoid content and antioxidant activity of myrtle. Essential oil yield ranged from 0.2% in contro...

Inter Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) markers were used to assess the genetic diversity among 23 outcross and self pollinated populations of fennel collected from different geographical regions of Iran and some European countries. The experiment was carried out to determine the effect of self-pollination on morphological traits and genetic diversity...

The fruit essential oils of 23 Iranian and European sweet fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.) samples were investigated for essential oil yield and chemical composition. The essential oil yield varied between 2.4 % and 6.4 %. The content of trans-anethole was from 85.07 % to 90.38 %. Other constituents: fenchone, estragole, 1,8-cineole and limonene w...

ISSR and morphological markers were used to assess the genetic variation in 117 ajowan accessions belonging to 25 populations collected from different geographical regions in Iran. For this purpose, fifteen primer combinations were applied to produce 120 polymorphic bands. The dendrogram delineated ajowan accessions into three major groups based on...

In this work, the effect of three-day germination on proximate composition, total phenolic compounds, fatty acid profile, vitamin C content, radical scavenging activity, malondialdehyde content and reducing power of safflower seed was investigated. Apart from ash, other parameters including oil, protein and crude fiber contents decreased significan...

Ajowan (Trachyspermum ammi) is an industrial medicinal plant with different food and pharmaceutical applications. Essential oil yield and composition of 24 ajowan populations in different locations of Iran was investigated. The essential oil content of populations ranged from 1.68% in Yazshah to 5.55% in Yazd. According to GC–MS analysis, thymol (4...

The fruit essential oils of 23 Iranian and European sweet fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.) samples were investigated for essential oil yield and chemical composition. The essential oil yield varied between 2.4 % and 6.4 %. The content of trans-anethole was from 85.07 % to 90.38 %. Other constituents: fenchone, estragole, 1,8-cineole and limonene w...

Chemical composition and antioxidant activity of four fennel populations (England, Spain, Poland and Iran) were investigated during six developmental stages including two vegetative and four reproductive phases. In reproductive phase, the essential oil content of fruits decreased and the maximum content (5.9%) was obtained in immediate fruits. The...

In the present research, variability in essential oil composition of five D. aucheri populations collected from natural habitats in different regions of Iran, were investigated. The essential oil content of populations varied from 0.28% to 0.68%. According to GC-MS analysis, β-caryophyllene (7.17-35.73%), thymol (23.45-29.64%), β-gurjunene (2.58-5....

In order to estimate the drought effects on capitula characteristics and self-pollination of globe artichoke (Cynara cardunculus var. scolymus Hayek L.), the randomized complete block design was carried out with three irrigation regimes (20 %, 50 % and 80 % depletion of soil available water) and six replicates. The artichoke is mostly open-pollinat...

In this study, antioxidant, antibacterial and antiglycation properties of methanolic extracts of 23 fennel samples were evaluated and their major compounds were determined using HPLC analysis. The anti-glycative activity of extracts was evaluated in the bovine serum albumin (BSA)/glucose system. The level of glycation, conformational alterations an...

Seed oil content of globe artichoke and its composition were assessed under three irrigation regimes, including irrigation at 20, 50, and 80 % depletion of soil available water. Water deficit affected the phenological characteristics, amount and the quality of the oil as well as the phenolics and antioxidant activity of the leaves and capitula. The...

In order to assess the genetic variation in Stachys accessions, an experiment was carried out in randomized block design with three replicates on 41 accessions including Ferydoonshahr (1), Damaneh (21), Gavkhoft (15), Semirom (4). According to analysis of variance significant differences were observed among all studied traits but not significant di...

Moisture content is a critical factor in quality and shelf-life of foods and agricultural products. This research dealt with prediction of moisture ratio of tea leaves using intelligent genetic algorithm-artificial neural networks (multilayer perceptron, MLP; and radial basis function, RBF) and semi-empirical models during different thin-layer dryi...

The production of self pollinated plant genotypes could be critical for improving medicinal plants. Pollination in Apiaceae family can also affect secondary metabolites. In this study, 23 fennel populations were used to assess the effect of self pollination on essential oil yield, antioxidant activity (based on three model system), total phenolic (...