Abstract
Castanea sativa cultivation has been present in Mediterranean regions since ancient times. In order to promote a circular economy, it is of great importance to valorize chestnut groves’ by-products. In this study, leaves and spiny burs from twenty-four Castanea trees were analyzed by 1H NMR metabolomics to provide an overview of their phytochemical profile. The Orthogonal Projections to Latent Structures Discriminant Analysis (OPLS-DA) performed on these data allowed us to distinguish ‘Marrone’ from ‘Castagna’, since the latter were generally more enriched with secondary metabolites, in particular, flavonoids (astragalin, isorhamnetin glucoside, and myricitrin) were dominant. Knowing that microglia are involved in mediating the oxidative and inflammatory response of the central nervous system, the potential anti-inflammatory effects of extracts derived from leaves and spiny burs were evaluated in a neuroinflammatory cell model: BV-2 microglia cells. The tested extracts showed cytoprotective activity (at 0.1 and 0.5 mg/mL) after inflammation induction by 5 µg/mL lipopolysaccharide (LPS). In addition, the transcriptional levels of IL-1β, TNF-α, and NF-kB expression induced by LPS were significantly decreased by cell incubation with spiny burs and leaves extracts. Taken together, the obtained results are promising and represent an important step to encourage recycling and valorization of chestnut byproducts, usually considered “waste”.
Highlights
IntroductionCastanea sativa Mill. (Fagaceae) is widespread in the Mediterranean region, where, since ancient times, its cultivation for timber and nut production has played a pivotal role in local sustenance and economy
Leaves and spiny burs from twenty-four Castanea trees were analyzed by 1H NMR metabolomics to provide an overview of their phytochemical profile
Knowing that microglia are involved in mediating the oxidative and inflammatory response of the central nervous system, the potential anti-inflammatory effects of extracts derived from leaves and spiny burs were evaluated in a neuroinflammatory cell model: BV-2 microglia cells
Summary
Castanea sativa Mill. (Fagaceae) is widespread in the Mediterranean region, where, since ancient times, its cultivation for timber and nut production has played a pivotal role in local sustenance and economy. Farmers tend to burn spiny burs, a maintenance practice, which could be avoided by adopting more sustainable solutions [1,2,3]. In this context, the implantation of circular economy practices, based on valorization of a crop’s waste material, plays a pivotal role. The abundance of total phenols and hydrolysable tannins confers to chestnut grove by-products interesting anti-inflammatory activity, as demonstrated by the ability of Castanea shell extracts to reduce the levels of cytokines and other biomarkers of inflammation in several experimental models [6,7,8,9,10,11]
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