Compositae Asteraceae groups

Many unsaturated compounds found in nature contain one or more acetylenic bonds, and these are predominantly produced by further desaturation of olefinic systems in fatty acid-derived molecules. They are surprisingly widespread in nature, and are found in many organisms, but are especially common in plants of the Compositae/Asteraceae, the Umbelliferae/Apiaceae, and fungi of the group... 

The other major group of irregular monoterpenes is formed by non-head-to-tail fusion of isoprene units. Important members include artemisia ketone 64, santolinatriene 65, chrysanthemol 66, yomogi alcohol 67 and lavandulol 68 (Structure 4.15). Lavandulane-type compounds occur in the families Lamiaceae (Labiatae) and Apiaceae (Umbelliferae), while chrysanthemane, artemisane and santolinane types occur in the family Asteraceae (Compositae) [47,48]. 

The family for Jerusalem artichoke is therefore frequently written as Asteraceae (Compositae). The modem names were introduced as a way of standardizing taxonomic terms (e.g., all family names now end in aceae for ease of recognition), and to realign certain groupings so that each family has a nomenclatural-type specimen. The family Asteraceae contains 476 genera in total. The genus Helianthus has sometimes been placed in the subtribe Helianthinae of the family Asteraceae (e.g., Robinson, 1981). 

Echinacea is a group of American coneflowers in the Family Asteraceae/ Compositae. There are nine species of the plant included in the genus. Three of these are typically seen in herbal preparations Echinacea purpurea, Echinacea angustifolia, and Echinacea pallida. Common preparations consist of freshly pressed or ethanolic extracts of the roots, leaves, and flowers as well as dried portions of the plants. E. purpurea is the most commonly used species, although it is often seen in combination with E. angustifolia (1). 

Although simple coumarins are found in many plant families, the distribution of furanocoumarins is restricted. Furanocoumarins have been reported from the Apiaceae (Umbelli-ferae), Asteraceae (Compositae), Moraceae (Brosimum, Dorstenia, Fatoua, and Ficus), Pittosporaceae, Rosaceae, Rutaceae, Solanaceae, and Thymelaeaceae (Bilia et al, 1992,1993 Murray etal., 1982 Swain and Downum, 1990). Certain precursors to this group of compounds are found in the Cneoraceae (Murray, 1978). 

The Compositae or Asteraceae family comprises a diverse group of species which are valuable for human food, oil production, ornamentals, insecticides, medicinal uses, and industrial applications (reviewed in Dempewolf et al., 2(X)8). Tissue culture techniques are available for some of the species however, this family is considered recalcitrant regarding DH techniques. In the author s laboratory, experiments were conducted in an effort to develop an efficient and consistent protocol for the production of DHs in a few of the compositae species. Anther culture, isolated microspore culture, and ovary culture were explored by testing preculture factors (eg, growth conditions of donor plants, genotype, and pretreatments) and postculture factors (eg, media and incubation conditions) (Ferrie, 2007 Ferrie and Caswell, 201 la) with limited success. 

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