Productivity of Hypericum perforatum L. plants of different geographical origins under conditions of introduction in the North

The articlesummarizes the results of five years of research on the quantitative and qualitative indicators of the raw aboveground phytomass of 29 samples ofHypericum perforatumof different geographical origin on a homogeneous leveled agricultural field under controlled conditions of the introduction nursery. The source material was used to study delectates from botanical gardens in Russia and abroad, and the seeds of two samples were collected in nature in the Kirov and Irkutsk Regions. The seedling-grown plants entered the generative period in the second year of life. The main indicators of the aboveground phytomass of the floral part of the generative shoot (inflorescence), which serves as the medicinal raw material of St. John's wort, were taken into account, as well as the number of shoots per individual was calculated during the mass flowering phase on plants of the second to fifth years of life of each sample. It was revealed that plants of the second year of life of the majority of the studied samples (25) are capable of forming 3–6, rarely 7–9 generative shoots per individual. In the third year of life, there was a sharp increase in the number of shoots per individual in all samples, on average 9,9 times and reached 38–59 (68) pcs./ individual, and in the fourth and fifth years of plant life, the number of shoots decreased on average 3,3 times and amounted to 10–22 pcs./individual. It was found that the total content of hypericin and pseudohypericin in the aboveground phytomass of St. John's wort depended both on the origin of the samples and the meteorological conditions of the season. Seven samples of different geographical origin were identified (Irkutsk Region, Kazan, Oslo 219 and 222, Petrozavodsk, Tallin 885 and 888), which for three years, regardless of the meteorological conditions of the season, produced high levels of hypericin and pseudohypericin in medicinal raw materials (0,05–0,119%). A high content of flavonoids (3,53–7,62%) was found in the raw phytomass of the studied samples of St. John's wort of different geographical origin.