Comparative metabolomics applied for valorization of Mesquite (Prosopis juliflora (Sw. DC.) by-products as potential source of anti-inflammatory functional constituents

Abstract

Mesquite (Prosopis juliflora (Sw.) DC.) is widely used in food, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic industries. Every part of mesquite is used for medicinal purposes. In this work, stems, leaves, flowers and pods of P. juliflora were chemically profiled via UPLC/MS/MS analysis for their valorization as forest by-products with tentative identification of 44 metabolites. Multivariate statistical analysis was implemented to investigate in-between and within class discrimination of the different parts of mesquite where stems and leaves extracts were separately segregated indicating great variation in their chemical profile, while pods and flowers were clustered together. Ex-vivo anti-inflammatory activity of the tested extracts on four pro-inflammatory markers (TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6 and INF-γ) were performed where stems extracts showed significant inhibition to the tested cytokines. Orthogonal projection to latent structures (OPLS) models and coefficient plots of each pro-inflammatory marker unraveled the important functional constituents that positively correlated to inhibitory activity of each cytokine. 3′-oxojuliprosine, isojuliprosine, and palmitic acid have high coefficient correlation values regarding inhibiting TNF-α and IL-1β pro-inflammatory markers, where they showed spatial correlation to flowers extracts. Meanwhile, stems and leaves were spatially correlated to downregulation of IL-6 and INF-γ levels with retusin-7-neohesperidoside, tryptamine and schaftoside, being the most significant coefficients. Results indicate the possible use of different parts of mesquite a potential source of functional components as high-value-added byproducts.