Pereira Catarina Guerreiro, Barreira Luísa, Bijttebier Sebastiaan, Pieters Luc, Neves Vanessa, Rodrigues Maria João, Rivas Ricardo, Varela João, Custódio Luísa
Centre of Marine Sciences, University of Algarve, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, Ed. 7, Campus of Gambelas, 8005-139, Faro, Portugal.
University of Antwerp, Natural Products & Food Research and Analysis (NatuRA), Antwerp, Belgium; Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), Business Unit Separation and Conversion Technology (SCT), Mol, Belgium.
J Pharm Biomed Anal. 2017 Oct 25;145:593-603. doi: 10.1016/j.jpba.2017.07.007. Epub 2017 Jul 18.
Several medicinal plants are currently used by the food industry as functional additives, for example botanical extracts in herbal drinks. Moreover, the scientific community has recently begun focusing on halophytes as sources of functional beverages. Helichrysum italicum subsp. picardii (everlasting) is an aromatic halophyte common in southern Europe frequently used as spice and in traditional medicine. In this context, this work explored for the first time H. italicum subsp. picardii as a potential source of innovative herbal beverages with potential health promoting properties. For that purpose, infusions and decoctions were prepared from roots, vegetative aerial-organs (stems and leaves) and flowers and evaluated for in vitro antioxidant and anti-diabetic activities. Samples were also assessed for toxicity in different mammalian cell lines and chemically characterized by spectrophotometric methods and ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-photodiode array-mass-spectrometry (UHPLC-PDA-MS). Results were expressed relating to 'a cup-of-tea' and compared with those obtained with green tea (Camellia sinensis) and rooibos tisane (Aspalathus linearis). Tisanes from the everlasting's above-ground organs, particularly flowers, have high polyphenolic content and several phenolics were identified; the main compounds were chlorogenic and quinic acids, dicaffeoylquinic-acid isomers and gnaphaliin-A. The antioxidant activity of beverages from the everlasting's above-ground organs matched or surpassed that of green tea and rooibos. Its anti-diabetic activity was moderate and toxicity low. Overall, our results suggest that the everlasting is a potential source of innovative and functional herbal beverages.
目前，几种药用植物被食品工业用作功能性添加剂，例如草本饮料中的植物提取物。此外，科学界最近开始关注盐生植物作为功能性饮料的来源。意大利蜡菊亚种皮卡迪蜡菊（everlasting）是一种常见于南欧的芳香盐生植物，经常被用作香料和传统药物。在此背景下，这项工作首次探索了皮卡迪蜡菊作为具有潜在健康促进特性的创新草本饮料的潜在来源。为此，用根、地上营养器官（茎和叶）以及花制备了浸剂和煎剂，并对其体外抗氧化和抗糖尿病活性进行了评估。还对样品在不同哺乳动物细胞系中的毒性进行了评估，并通过分光光度法和超高效液相色谱 - 光电二极管阵列 - 质谱联用仪（UHPLC - PDA - MS）进行了化学表征。结果以“一杯茶”为参照表示，并与绿茶（茶树）和路易波士茶（线叶金雀花）的结果进行了比较。来自蜡菊地上器官的茶剂，特别是花，具有高多酚含量，并且鉴定出了几种酚类物质；主要化合物是绿原酸和奎宁酸、二咖啡酰奎宁酸异构体和鼠麴草素 - A。蜡菊地上器官制成的饮料的抗氧化活性与绿茶和路易波士茶相当或超过它们。其抗糖尿病活性适中，毒性较低。总体而言，我们的结果表明蜡菊是创新型功能性草本饮料的潜在来源。
