Poplars provide medicinal raw plant materials used in pharmacy. Leaf buds are one of the herbal medicinal products collected from poplars, having anti-inflammatory and antiseptic properties, but there are no quality standards for their production and there is a need to determine their botanical sources. Therefore, the chemical compositions of the leaf buds from four species and varieties of poplars, Populus balsamifera, P. × berolinensis, P. × canadensis 'Marilandica', and P. wilsonii were investigated and compared using gas chromatography coupled with mass detection (GC-MS) and two-dimensional high-performance thin-layer chromatography (2D-HPTLC) in order to search for taxa characterized by a high content of biologically active compounds and with a diverse chemical composition that determines their therapeutic effects. The presence of 163 compounds belonging to the groups of flavonoids, phenolic acids derivatives, glycerides, and sesquiterpenes was revealed. Moreover, the conditions for the separation and identification of biologically active compounds occurring in analyzed leaf buds using 2D-HPTLC were optimized and used for metabolomic profiling of the studied poplars, enabling their fast and simple botanical identification. The total phenolic (TPC) and flavonoid (TFC) contents of examined extracts were determined and their antioxidant capacities were estimated by spectrophotometric DPPH, ABTS, and FRAP assays. Based on the analysis of phytochemicals and antioxidant activity, P. × berolinensis buds were selected as the raw plant material for medicinal purposes with the highest content of active compounds and the strongest antioxidant activity.
Keywords: bioautography; flavonoids; phenolics; poplar buds; standardization.