Morphometric variation and taxonomic identification of thirteen wild rose populations from Tunisia

Thirteen populations of wild roses (Rosa L.) growing in northern and central Tunisia have been used for studies on the discrimination between accessions and populations. Thirty-eight morphological characters related to the branches, prickles, leaves and corymbs were measured on the collected accessions to study the phenotypic diversity among and within species. Principal component and hierarchical cluster analyses (PCA and HCA) separated rose accessions into two distinctive groups and eight subgroups. A taxonomic interpretation of the morphological variability has shown that Tunisian rose populations belong to two sections (Synstylae and Caninae) of the genus Rosa. Moreover, they have been identified as seven separated taxa: R. sempervirens L., R. sempervirens var. submoshata Rouy., R. sempervirens var. prostrata Lindl. belonging to Synstylae section and R. canina L., R. agrestis Savi., R. micrantha Smith. and R. dumetorum Thuill. belonging to Caninae section. PCA and HCA proved that morphological characters used in taxonomic identification such as styles form, leaf and leaflets length, number of flowers by corymb, leaflet serration, presence of glands in leaflet, peduncle, receptacle and sepal have a high value of discrimination, and have been very successful in morphological identification

Evaluation of the Efficiency of Opuntia ficus-indica Cladode Cuttings for Vegetative Multiplication

In Tunisia, Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill., occupying many hundreds of thousand hectares, constitutes a future plant as a fruit tree, mainly due to its edible fruit and vegetal mass used as food. The continuously increasing demand for young plants for the extension of its cultivation requires the research of rapid, efficiency and economic methods ensuring conformity multiplication. With aim to a large production of plant material, a rapid in situ propagation method of the prickly pear cactus was developed. Varied portions of Opuntia ficus-indica cladodes harvested in spring or in autumn, planted horizontally or vertically were used in order to optimize rhizogenesis and secondary cladode initiation rates. Half, quarter and the tenth of cladode cuttings harvested and planted in spring vertically and in normal polarity show very interesting results concerning rhizogenesis and caulogenesis. Those portions of cladodes demonstrated the best results, vertically planted in normal polarity and 100% of rooting was observed on right ones. The number of roots was the highest on basal right tenth cuttings (80). Contrariwise, the percentage of secondary cladodes initiated was the highest on apical right cuttings (70 and 74%) and the longest roots were initiated on the two basal tenth cuttings, left and right ones (13 and 14 cm). This fragmentation represents a substantially gain of material and time especially for large cultivated surfaces of Opuntia ficus-indica. Reducing the cladode cutting size, do not reduce its rhizogenesis and caulogenesis potentialities

Sexual Propagation of the Tunisian Spinescent Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill., Morphogenetic Deployment and Polymorphism

The most common means of Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill. propagation is through the use of asexually methods without genetic recombination which has been extensively studied for commercial purpose or to reduce erosion and desertification. However, seeds are important units to be considered for maintaining the species genetic variability. With the aim to undrestand the morphogenetic polymorphism deployment of the Tunisian spinescent Opuntia ficus-indica from the juvenile to the advanced stages, we search, firstly, the optimal conditions permetting to ensure the highest germination rate during the shortest period with sulphuric acid scarification in ten levels time of dipping. The best germinated rate (68.0%) is reached within 30 min of treatment exposure. Some germinated seeds showed polyembryony phenomenon. The highest rate (29.3%) was recorded after 25 and 30 min of pretreatment. Occurrence of morphogenetic abnormalities: tricotyledony, dissymmetried, coiled and adhered cotyledons in percentages varying from 12.8 to 20.0% was also reported. Secondly, a morphogenetic tracking of Opuntia ficus-indica young seedlings to adult plants during seven years (2009-2015) from the germination of seeds to the production of seeds was performed. This essay allowed us to report major seedling characteristics, their growth and phenotypic polymorphism: vertical succession of varying numbers of basal cladodes, future plant trunk formation, development and arrangement of secondary cladodes in the space, spinescence polymorphism and the first flowering and fruiting

Amantagula fruit (Carissa macrocarpa (Eckl.) A.DC.): nutritional and phytochemical characterization

Fruits are one of the most promising food matrices and they have been explored in the discovery of new natural and safer bioactive compounds. Carissa macrocarpa (Eckl.) A. DC. fruits are widely consumed in African countries for the preparation of traditional foodstuff, but also for their beneficially health effects. Thus, as the authors’ best knowledge there are no studies on the chemical and bioactive characterization of these fruits. Therefore, fruits of C. macrocarpa from Tunisia were chemically characterized regarding their nutritional value and bioactive compounds. Furthermore, the hydroethanolic extract of these fruits was evaluated regarding its bioactive properties. The fruit powder sample showed high amounts of sugars and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). The organic acids and tocopherols’ profiles revealed the presence of five organic acids and two tocopherol isoforms, being quinic acid and α-tocopherol the most abundant. The hydroethanolic extract of the fruits presented high antioxidant, cytotoxic, anti-inflammatory, and antibacterial properties, showing activity against all the bacterial strains studied, also inhibiting the cell growth of all the tested tumor cell lines, with the exception of HepG2, and did not reveal toxicity for the non-tumor cells PLP2. Therefore, the fruits of C. macrocarpa could be included in a daily basis diet as a source of high nutritional quality compounds with high bioactive potential.The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) and FEDER under Programme PT2020 for financial support to CIMO (UID/AGR/00690/ 2013), and L. Barros contract. To the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Regional Operational Program North 2020, within the scope of Project Mobilizador Norte-01-0247-FEDER- 024479: ValorNatural®.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Valorisation of the green waste parts from turnip, radish and wild cardoon: Nutritional value, phenolic profile and bioactivity evaluation

The recovery of bio-wastes to obtain high added value compounds is of great interest for the pharmaceutical, medicinal and food industries. Therefore, the aerial parts of turnip (Brassica rapa L.), radish (Raphanus sativus L.) and leaf blade of wild cardoon (Cynara cardunculus L. var. sylvestris (Lamk) Fiori) were characterized regarding their nutritional composition, as also their content in soluble sugars, organic acids, fatty acids, and tocopherols. Furthermore, their hydroethanolic extracts and infusion preparations, were profiled regarding individual phenolic compounds by HPLC-DAD/ESI-MS and their antioxidant, antibacterial and hepatotoxic activities were evaluated. Regarding the nutritional content, wild cardoon revealed the best results, however it was radish and turnip that showed higher values for organic acids and phenolic compounds. The hydroethanolic extract and infusion preparation of wild cardoon stood out for its antioxidant and antibacterial activity. Overall, the hydroethanolic extracts seemed more effective (regarding antioxidant and antibacterial activity) than the infusions. Total phenolic acids proved to be strongly correlated with the antioxidant and antibacterial (against Morganella morganii) activities. This study showed that the discarded parts of these plants can be used as an important natural source of valuable nutrient content and new and safe bioactive compounds, beneficial for human health. Moreover, the extraction of those compounds from underused parts of turnip, radish and cardoon could be used to preserve foods, avoiding artificial additives and thus, contributing to the development of new natural ingredients.The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) and FEDER under Programmer PT2020 for financial support to CIMO (UID/AGR/00690/2019). National funding by FCT, P.I., through the institutional scientific employment programcontract for M.I. Dias and L. Barros contracts. The authors are also grateful to FEDER-Interreg España-Portugal programme for financial support through the project 0377_Iberphenol_6_E.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Phenolic profile and bioactive properties of carissa macrocarpa (Eckl.) A.DC.: An in vitro comparative study between leaves, stems, and flowers

The present work aimed to characterize leaves, stems, and flowers of Carissa macrocarpa (Eckl.) A.DC., by performing an analysis of the phenolic compounds by HPLC-DAD/ESI-MS, correlating them with bioactive properties, such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, cytotoxic, and antimicrobial activities. Thirty polyphenols were identified in the hydroethanolic extract, including phenolic acids, flavan-3-ols, and flavonol glycosides derivatives (which presented the highest number of identified compounds). However, flavan-3-ols showed the highest concentration in stems (mainly owing to the presence of dimers, trimmers, and tetramers of type B (epi)catechin). Leaves were distinguished by their high antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities, as well as their bactericidal e ect against E. coli, while stems presented a higher cytotoxic activity and bactericidal e ect against Gram-positive bacteria. Moreover, a high correlation between the studied bioactivities and the presence of phenolic compounds was also verified. The obtained results bring added value to the studied plant species.The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) and FEDER under Programmer PT2020 for financial support to CIMO (UID/AGR/00690/2019); L. Barros and M.I. Dias thank the national funding by FCT, P.I., through the institutional scientific employment program-contract for their contracts. The authors are also grateful to FEDER-Interreg España-Portugal programme for financial support through the project 0377_Iberphenol_6_E.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio