Department of Pharmacognosy, University of Szeged, 6720 Szeged, Hungary.
Interdisciplinary Centre for Natural Products, University of Szeged, 6720 Szeged, Hungary.
Molecules. 2019 Aug 5;24(15):2844. doi: 10.3390/molecules24152844.
Furocoumarins are known for their phototoxic and potential carcinogenic effects. These types of compounds have previously been reported from fennel ( Mill.), a widely used medicinal plant and spice; however, no reliable quantitative data are available on the occurrence of these compounds in fennel fruits. For the first time, we report a comprehensive analysis of fennel fruit samples of different origins, representing a wide range of accessions for their furocoumarin content. Psoralene, 5-methoxypsoralene (bergapten), and imperatorin contents of 33 fennel samples were analyzed using a sensitive liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) method. When applied at the highest therapeutic dose described in the monograph issued by the European Medicines Agency, the furocoumarin content of the fruits ranged up to 1.22 μg/d, which is below the most restrictive recommendations. Based on our findings, fennel consumption can be considered as safe, at least based on its low furocoumarin content.
香豆素类化合物以其光毒性和潜在致癌性而闻名。这些类型的化合物以前曾从广泛使用的药用植物和香料茴香（Mill.）中被报道过；然而，目前还没有关于这些化合物在茴香果实中存在的可靠定量数据。我们首次对不同来源的茴香果实样本进行了全面分析，代表了广泛的品种，分析了它们的香豆素含量。使用灵敏的液相色谱-质谱（LC-MS）方法分析了 33 个茴香样本中补骨脂素、5-甲氧基补骨脂素（花椒毒素）和异茴芹素的含量。当以欧洲药品管理局专论中描述的最高治疗剂量应用时，果实中的香豆素含量高达 1.22μg/d，低于最严格的建议。根据我们的发现，至少基于茴香果实中的低香豆素含量，茴香的食用可以被认为是安全的。
