Abstract
Phytochemical participants in the biosynthetic pathway of salidroside and cinnamyl alcohol glycosides were studied from seven Rhodiola rosea L. individuals originating from a wild population. Plants were grown in a phytotron and samples were taken at 3 weekly intervals during the vegetation period. Based on HPLC analysis, all the key compounds to which roseroot medicinal property is attributed were detected, with salidrosde being the most dominant, followed by its aglycone, tyrosol. The contents of all compounds were 2–3 times more in the rhizomes than in roots. The highest content of salidroside, tyrosol, rosarin, rosavin and cinnamyl alcohol was recorded in rhizomes and at the beginning of shoot elongation. The seven roseroot individuals showed a very high deviation in their chemical content at each sampling time. Our statistical analysis showed that the trend of salidroside accumulation in the rhizome was the most similar in all studied plants. These results have important implications for choosing a reasonable harvest time to obtain the maximum phytochemical content and a better understanding of active compounds formation in R. rosea L.