1 of 10 Published by Polish Botanical Society Acta Societatis Botanicorum Poloniae ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER Biometric features and content of phenolic compounds of roseroot ( Rhodiola rosea L.) Artur Adamczak 1 *, Waldemar Buchwald 1 , Agnieszka Gryszczyńska 2 1 Department of Botany, Breeding and Agricultural Technology of Medicinal Plants, Institute of Natural Fibres and Medicinal Plants, Kolejowa 2, 62-064 Plewiska, Poland 2 Department of Pharmacology and Phytochemistry, Institute of Natural Fibres and Medicinal Plants, Kolejowa 2, 62-064 Plewiska, Poland * Corresponding author. Email: artur.adamczak@iwnirz.pl Abstract Roseroot (Rhodiola rosea L.) belongs to important herbs in folk medicine of Scan- dinavia, Russia, Mongolia, and China. Its therapeutic usage is mainly associated with the adaptogenic properties of this species. Roseroot is characterized by high morphological, phytochemical, and genetic diferentiation. Te aim of the pres- ent work was to determine the biometric and phytochemical co-variability of this taxon. Samples of Rh. rosea were collected from 4-year-old experimental feld cul- tivation established by rhizome division in western Poland. For each plant, the biometric measurements of the clumps, shoots, leaves, and rhizomes with roots were carried out. In the underground plant parts (raw material), the contents of the main active compounds (phenylpropanoids, phenylethanoids, phenolic acids, and catechins) were determined by the HPLC-DAD method. K-means clustering analysis showed three well-separated plant groups of Rh. rosea that difered signif- cantly in the level of most of the investigated components. It was interesting that in the raw material with a high content of phenylethanoids, a low level of phenyl- propanoids was found, and vice versa. Tese chemical groups clearly difered in luxuriance of plants, too. Te important diagnostic feature was also the degree of leaf serration. Te morphological and phytochemical co-variability of roseroot was confrmed by the correlations detected between some active compounds (espe- cially catechins and rosavin) and biometric traits describing the size and serration of leaves, the size of clumps and shoots as well as the weight of the raw material. Keywords Rhodiola rosea; medicinal plants; biometric traits; HPLC; chemotypes Introduction Rhodiola rosea L. (Crassulaceae) is a herbaceous perennial plant with feshy leaves and thick rhizomes. Tis arctic-alpine species has a wide range of distribution, from the mountains of Western and Central Europe, Siberia, Mongolia to Far East and North America [1]. Its largest resources are in the Altai and Sayan Mountains where Rh. rosea occurs in subalpine meadows along the rivers and streams as well as in low thickets [2,3]. In Poland, roseroot grows in the Giant Mountains, Babia Góra, Tatra and Bieszczady Mountains [4–6]. For centuries, rhizomes of this species, also known as golden root, arctic root, and Hongjingtian in Chinese, have been an important raw material in folk medicine of Scandinavia, Russia, Mongolia, and China [7–10]. Tradi- tional use was associated with the adaptogenic properties of this taxon. In the last de- cades, many research studies have found that roseroot increases mental and physical strength as well as it shows anti-stress, cardioprotective, antioxidative, immunomodu- latory, and anticancer activities [7,11–14]. Te above-described features of Rh. rosea are associated with the presence of phenolics, especially phenylpropanoids, so-called rosavins and phenylethanoids – salidroside and p-tyrosol [15]. DOI: 10.5586/asbp.3500 Publication history Received: 2016-02-04 Accepted: 2016-07-15 Published: 2016-09-26 Handling editor Elżbieta Romanowska, Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw, Poland Authors’ contributions WB: project manager; WB, AA, AG: research designing; AA: biometric research; AG: phytochemical analysis; AA: statistical analysis and writing the manuscript; WB: a review of the text Funding This research was supported by the Polish Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Competing interests No competing interests have been declared. Copyright notice © The Author(s) 2016. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits redistribution, commercial and non- commercial, provided that the article is properly cited. Citation Adamczak A, Buchwald W, Gryszczyńska A. Biometric features and content of phenolic compounds of roseroot (Rhodiola rosea L.). Acta Soc Bot Pol. 2016;85(3):3500. http:// dx.doi.org/10.5586/asbp.3500 Digital signature This PDF has been certifed using digital signature with a trusted timestamp to assure its origin and integrity. A verifcation trust dialog appears on the PDF document when it is opened in a compatible PDF reader. Certifcate properties provide further details such as certifcation time and a signing reason in case any alterations made to the fnal content. If the certifcate is missing or invalid it is recommended to verify the article on the journal website.