Chemical Composition Appreciation and Microcutting of White Horehound (Marrubium vulgare L.): A Wild Therapeutic Plant from Algeria

Many medicinal plants growing spontaneously in Algeria are able to synthesize a wide range of bioactive molecules with marked pharmacological properties. Among these plants, Marrubium vulgare L. of the Lamiaceae family. This plant is rich in active ingredients, which gives it a valuable place in Algerian traditional medicine and in pharmaceutical industries. However, the excessive collection exposes native populations of this plant species to destruction and decline. In this context, this work aims to study the chemical composition of M. vulgare and to screen its regeneration ability via axillary buds under in vitro culture conditions. The results obtained from the chemical screening showed that the vegetative parts of M. vulgare contain flavonoids, tannins, saponins, cardenolides and triterpenes. The content of total phenol is 28.75 mg GAE/g of plant dry matter. The in vitro cultivation of microcuttings on Murashige and Skoog medium (MS) supplemented with different concentrations of auxin (indole-3-acetic acid: IAA) and kinetin (N6-furfuryladenine: Kin) showed that the regeneration of new M. vulgare plants is possible. Bud growth rate was 20% and shoot development rate was between 20 and 60%. This study showed that in vitro microcutting of M. vulgare is a suitable technique to regenerate and preserve this plant species but it is necessary to optimize the concentrations of growth regulators in order to increase the success rate of regeneration.