Plants can produce a large group of organic compounds called secondary metabolites that are mainly consumed by humans as medicinal compounds. Ziziphora clinopodioides is an edible medicinal plant used as a wild vegetable or additive in foods to offer aroma and flavor. This plant is also used to treat heart disease, high blood pressure, edema, cough, bronchitis, lung abscess, and other diseases such as cold and flu, infectious diseases, and inflammation. In this study, the aerial part and root of two subspecies of Z. clinipodioides belong to “Tymourtash Village” (Z. clinipodioides subsp. bungeana) and “Hezar Masjed Mountains” (Z. clinipodioides subsp. filicaulis) were sampled to investigate the phenolic metabolites. The content of total phenols and phenolic acids were measured based on spectrophotometric technique and antioxidant potentials were evaluated based on DPPH and FRAP assays. It was found that total phenols and phenolic acids in the roots of Z. clinopodioides subsp bungeana (2.752 and 0.818 mg g-1 DW, respectively) were more than in comparison to its aerial parts (2.623 and 0.120 mg g-1 DW, respectively). Although the same situation was also observed for root and aerial part of Z. clinipodioides subsp. filicaulis, the level of these compounds was lower as compared to Z. clinopodioides subsp bungeana. The results of antioxidant capacity also showed a significant difference in the extracts of two organs of the studied subspecies. Accordingly, it can be concluded that the production capacity of phenolic metabolites differs in various Z. clinopodioides subspecies. This matter would be the basis to suggest the plants with more metabolites for the food- pharmaceutical industry.

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