Phytochemical Analysis of Phillyrea latifolia L., a New Source of Oleuropeoside

Abstract

As a part of our studies on the biologically active substances from Spanish plants, we have undertaken an investigation of the chemical constituents of a typical mediterranean species, Phillyrea latifolia L. (Oleaceae). Two secoiridoid glycosides, three phenylpropanoid glycosides, one lignane and two triterpenic acids were isolated from the leaves of this species and identified. The phytochemical analysis of the aerial parts of P. latifolia revealed that it is a rich source of oleuropeoside.

Seasonal and Diurnal Variation in Leaf Phenolics of Three Medicinal Mediterranean Wild Species: What Is the Best Harvesting Moment to Obtain the Richest and the Most Antioxidant Extracts?

“…These compounds receive special attention nowadays for their biological activities, such as antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer [9,12]. Given the high flavonoid content of the studied species (Figure 2), they would represent raw materials for potential different products, including pharmaceutics and nutraceuticals that are based both on their traditional uses [23][24][25][26] and the scientific evidence [28,29,37,39].…”

“…Together, these compounds summed more than 90% of TPC (Figure 2A). Flavonoids with quercetin and luteolin aglycones were already described as important constituents of P. latifolia leaves [23,34,39,40]. Both aglycones have a catechol group in B ring of the flavonoid structure, a feature that confers them a high potential as free-radical scavengers [45].…”

“…Indeed, the amount of polyphenols changes according to phenological and developmental stages of the plants and to different environmental conditions [5,15,22]. Regarding this issue, studies concerning the seasonal and diurnal polyphenolic changes are still scarce [23], especially for Mediterranean plants, possibly due to the difficult and the laborious nature of such work.…”

“…Phillyrea latifolia L. (Oleaceae), Cistus incanus L. (Cistaceae) (syn. Cistus creticus, Cistus × incanus) and Pistacia lentiscus and L. (Anacardiaceae) are among the most widespread species in the Mediterranean basin and are commonly used in the folk medicine of this area [23][24][25][26].…”

“…Despite the knowledge about the polyphenolic composition of the extracts of these species [6,23,24,[40][41][42][43][44], qualitative and quantitative data on their seasonal and diurnal variation, as well as the relationship with environmental parameters have not been reported yet.…”