abstract
The chemical composition of the lipophilic extracts of the stems and grains of the shrub Retama sphaerocarpa was investigated by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry for the first time. Fatty acids is the major family of compounds in both morphological parts, representing between 37.1 and 85.1% of the total compounds detected, followed by sterols in stems and monoglycerides in grains. Considerable amounts of the alkaloids retamine (9.6 g kg(-1). of dry material) and cytisine (0.6 g kg(-1) of dry material) were also found in stems and grains, respectively. Before alkaline hydrolysis octadec-9-enoic (0.7-2.4 g kg(-1) of dry material), octadeca-9,12-dienoic (1.5-2.9 g kg(-1) of dry material) and hexadecanoic (1.1-2.0 g kg(-1) of dry material) acids are the most abundant lipophilic components in both morphological parts. After alkaline hydrolysis the contents of octade-9-enoic, octadeca-9,12-dienoic and octadeca-9,12,15-trienoic acids detected increased considerably ranging from 1.9 to 22.4, 3.6 to 40.1 and 0 to 8.6 g kg(-1) of dry material, respectively. Smaller amounts of long-chain aliphatic alcohols, alpha-tocopherol and beta-amyrin were also found. These data indicates that R. sphaerocarpa stems and grains are a potential source of valuable phytochemicals, with recognized nutritional and phytopharmaceutical applications. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
keywords
DIFFERENT MORPHOLOGICAL PARTS; LIPOPHILIC EXTRACTIVES; PERFORMANCE; FLAVONOIDS; MONOSPERMA; CYTISINE
subject category
Agriculture
authors
Touati, R; Santos, SAO; Rocha, SM; Belhamel, K; Silvestre, AJD
our authors
Armando Jorge Domingues Silvestre
Full professor
Sónia Andreia Oliveira Santos
Researcheracknowledgements
The authors wish to thank to FCT-Portugal (Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia) and POPH/FSE for the postdoctoral grants to S.A.O. Santos (SFRH/BPD/84226/2012), for Associate Laboratory CICECO funding (Ref. FCT UID/CTM/50011/2013 and QOPNA (PEst-C/QUI/UI0062/2013 and FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-037296). R. Touati gratefully acknowledges the financial support as grant from Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research of Algeria.