Novel insights into the biopharmaceutical potential, comparative phytochemical analysis and multivariate analysis of different extracts of shea butter tree -Vitellaria paradoxa C. F. Gaertn

Value-Added Compounds with Antimicrobial, Antioxidant, and Enzyme-Inhibitory Effects from Post-Distillation and Post-Supercritical CO2 Extraction By-Products of Rosemary

Hydrodistillation is the main technique to obtain essential oils from rosemary for the aroma industry. However, this technique is wasteful, producing numerous by-products (residual water, spent materials) that are usually discarded in the environment. Supercritical CO₂ (SC-CO₂) extraction is considered an alternative greener technology for producing aroma compounds. However, there have been no discussions about the spent plant material leftover. Therefore, this work investigated the chemical profile (GC-MS, LC-HRMS/MS) and multi-biological activity (antimicrobial, antioxidant, enzyme inhibitory) of several raw rosemary materials (essential oil, SC-CO₂ extracts, solvent extracts) and by-products/waste materials (post-distillation residual water, spent plant material extracts, and post-supercritical CO₂ spent plant material extracts). More than 55 volatile organic compounds (e.g., pinene, eucalyptol, borneol, camphor, caryophyllene, etc.) were identified in the rosemary essential oil and SC-CO₂ extracts. The LC-HRMS/MS profiling of the solvent extracts revealed around 25 specialized metabolites (e.g., caffeic acid, rosmarinic acid, salvianolic acids, luteolin derivatives, rosmanol derivatives, carnosol derivatives, etc.). Minimum inhibitory concentrations of 15.6-62.5 mg/L were obtained for some rosemary extracts against Micrococcus luteus, Bacilus cereus, or Staphylococcus aureus MRSA. Evaluated in six different in vitro tests, the antioxidant potential revealed strong activity for the polyphenol-containing extracts. In contrast, the terpene-rich extracts were more potent in inhibiting various key enzymes (e.g., acetylcholinesterase, butyrylcholinesterase, tyrosinase, amylase, and glucosidase). The current work brings new insightful contributions to the continuously developing body of knowledge about the valorization of rosemary by-products as a low-cost source of high-added-value constituents in the food, pharmaceutical, and cosmeceutical industries.

Comparative Elucidation of Aroma, Key Odorants, and Fatty Acid Profiles of Ivorian Shea Butter Prepared by Three Different Extraction Methods

In the present study, the volatile compounds, key odorants, and fatty acid profiles of Ivorian shea butter produced by cold press extraction (CPE), solvent extraction (SE) and traditional extraction (TE) methods were investigated for the first time. The aroma compounds of shea butter were extracted by the purge and trap method and analyzed by the gas chromatography–mass spectrometry and olfactometry (GC-MS/O) technique. Totals of 51, 49 and 46 aroma compounds were determined in samples from CPE, SE and TE, respectively. It was observed that the volatile compounds of studied material dominated after CPE, in which alcohols (11) were the most abundant chemical group, followed by aldehydes (10) and acids (7). The application of aroma extract dilution analysis (AEDA) resulted in 22, 20, and 16 key odorants in shea butter from CPE, SE and TE, respectively. 3-Hexanol with flavor dilution (FD) factors (2048 in CPS, 1024 in SE and 64 in TE) was found to be the most active aroma compound in all samples. In the fatty acid fraction obtained using the gas chromatography–flame ionization detector (GC-FID) method, 22, 24 and 19 fatty acids were detected in samples after CPE, SE and TE, respectively. The highest number of fatty acids was determined in shea butter using CPE (89.98%). Stearic and oleic acids were the most dominant fatty acids, and all samples of shea butter were rich sources of saturated fatty acids (SFAs). Moreover, the SE samples showed the highest values of DPPH (238.36 µM TEq/kg) and ABTS (534.96 µM TEq/kg), while the CPE samples had the highest total phenolic content (104.64 mg GAE/kg). Principal component analysis (PCA) clearly indicated that the extraction technique could quantitatively or qualitatively induce changes. Thus, this investigation demonstrated that extraction methods have a considerable impact on the quality and chemical composition of the presented material.

Plant Nutrition for Human Health: A Pictorial Review on Plant Bioactive Compounds for Sustainable Agriculture

Is there any relationship between plant nutrition and human health? The overall response to this question is very positive, and a strong relationship between the nutrition of plants and humans has been reported in the literature. The nutritional status of edible plants consumed by humans can have a negative or positive impact on human health. This review was designed to assess the importance of plant bioactive compounds for human health under the umbrella of sustainable agriculture. With respect to the first research question, it was found that plant bioactives (e.g., alkaloids, carotenoids, flavonoids, phenolics, and terpenoids) have a crucial role in human health due to their therapeutic benefits, and their potentiality depends on several factors, including botanical, environmental, and clinical attributes. Plant bioactives could be produced using plant tissue culture tools (as a kind of agro-biotechnological method), especially in cases of underexploited or endangered plants. Bioactive production of plants depends on many factors, especially climate change (heat stress, drought, UV radiation, ozone, and elevated CO2), environmental pollution, and problematic soils (degraded, saline/alkaline, waterlogged, etc.). Under the previously mentioned stresses, in reviewing the literature, a positive or negative association was found depending on the kinds of stress or bioactives and their attributes. The observed correlation between plant bioactives and stress (or growth factors) might explain the importance of these bioactives for human health. Their accumulation in stressed plants can increase their tolerance to stress and their therapeutic roles. The results of this study are in keeping with previous observational studies, which confirmed that the human nutrition might start from edible plants and their bioactive contents, which are consumed by humans. This review is the first report that analyzes this previously observed relationship using pictorial presentation.

New insights on Phyllanthus reticulatus Poir. leaves and stem bark extracts: UPLC-ESI-TOF-MS profiles, and biopharmaceutical and in silico analysis

Our results could provide a great scientific starting point on the way from the bench to functional applications through the use of P. reticulatus, namely novel nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals and cosmeceuticals.