Browsing by Author "Pereira, Catarina Alexandra Guerreiro"
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- Chemical and biological characterization of halophyte plants with ethnopharmacological use in the Algarve coastPublication . Pereira, Catarina Alexandra Guerreiro; Barreira, Luísa; Custódio, Luísa Margarida Batista; Palomera, Fernando AlberícioThis work aimed to investigate the potential of medicinal halophytes as sources of bioactive compounds with health-promoting properties, while validating their traditional uses and searching for new bioactivities/applications. Halophytes are salt-tolerant plants that survive in extreme biotopes and, to cope with environmental stress, are equipped with powerful defence mechanisms, including highly bioactive compounds. Several medicinal halophytes are used in folk therapeutics but, despite their ethnopharmacological importance, are still underexplored. This study focused on five medicinal halophytes from southern Portugal, namely Artemisia campestris L. subsp. maritima Arcangeli (dune wormwood), Crithmum maritimum L. (sea fennel), Eryngium maritimum L. (sea holly), Helichrysum italicum (Roth) G.Don subsp. picardii (Boiss&Reuter) Franco (everlasting), and Plantago coronopus L. (buckshorn plantain). Water and organic extracts were prepared from different plant organs, assessed for in vitro antioxidant, anti-diabetic, anti-hyperpigmentation and anti-protozoan activities, and chemically characterized. The large majority of the extracts have high polyphenolic content and are a potentially good source of these bioactive phytochemicals. They presented a wide diversity of phenolics, especially coumaric, ferulic, syringic, chlorogenic, and p-hydroxybenzoic acids. Minerals were also analysed, and some species may have a nutritional role as mineral supplementary source, particularly sea fennel for macronutrients and dune wormwood for microelements. A preliminary toxicological assessment showed that extracts had overall low toxicity. As for bioactivities, results confirm the strong in vitro antioxidant capacity of the extracts. Everlasting, dune wormwood and sea holly also showed anti-diabetic activity, while dune wormwood had additional anti-hyperpigmentation capacity, and sea fennel had activity against Trypanosoma cruzi. In conclusion, all halophytes can be useful sources of antioxidants to potentially help prevent oxidative-stress related diseases, while everlasting, dune wormwood and sea holly may additionally help control glucose levels. Dune wormwood is also a prospective source of compounds to prevent skin darkening and sea fennel may provide effective anti-T. cruzi molecule(s).