Optimization of Pressurized Liquid Extraction and In Vitro Neuroprotective Evaluation of Ammodaucus leucotrichus. Untargeted Metabolomics Analysis by UHPLC-MS/MS.

Norelhouda Abderrezag,Jose David Sánchez-Martínez,Ouahida Louaer,Abdeslam-Hassen Meniai,Jose A. Mendiola

doi:10.3390/molecules26226951

Abstract

Ammodaucus leucotrichus is a spontaneous plant endemic of the North African region. An efficient selective pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) method was optimized to concentrate neuroprotective extracts from A. leucotrichus fruits. Green solvents were tested, namely ethanol and water, within a range of temperatures between 40 to 180 °C. Total carbohydrates and total phenolics were measured in extracts, as well as in vitro antioxidant capacity (DPPH radical scavenging), anticholinesterase (AChE) and anti-inflammatory (LOX) activities. Metabolite profiling was carried out by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-ESI-q-TOF-MS/MS), identifying 94 compounds. Multivariate analysis was performed to correlate composition with bioactivity. A remarkable effect of the temperature using water was observed: the higher temperature, the higher extraction yield, the higher total phenolic content, as well as the higher total carbohydrates content. The water extract obtained at 180 °C, 10.34 MPa and 10 min showed meaningful anti-inflammatory (IC50LOX = 39.4 µg/mL) and neuroprotective activities (IC50AChE = 55.6 µg/mL). The Principal Components Analysis (PCA) and the cluster analysis correlated these activities with the presence of carbohydrates and phenolic compounds.

Highlights

The bioprospecting of the North African plants, especially from desert areas, is almost nonexistent compared with those on other continents, the desert has a rich heritage of medicinal plants of huge diversity
Pressurized liquid extraction using green solvents has been developed for the first time to extract bioactive molecules from Ammodaucus leucotrichus
It can be regarded as a first step in the valorization of this underexplored and unexploited North African natural plant potential

Summary

Introduction

The bioprospecting of the North African plants, especially from desert areas, is almost nonexistent compared with those on other continents, the desert has a rich heritage of medicinal plants of huge diversity. Ammodaucus leucotrichus (AL) is a spontaneous endemic plant belonging to Apiaceae family that is native of the Saharan and sub-Saharan countries of north and tropical Africa [2]. It is a small yearly wild and cultivated plant from 10 to 12 cm tall with fine and little fleshy leaves and white flowers grouped in umbels of 2, until 4 branches with 5 free petals. The fruit is diachene 6 to 10 mm long and has a dense, soft and white hair [3,4]; it is known in some areas as hairy cumin. AL fruit extract is reported to exhibit antioxidant [1,9], antibacterial [1,10], anti-inflammatory [10] and neuroprotective activities [11]

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