Salicornia ramosissima: Secondary metabolites and protective effect against acute testicular toxicity

AbstractSalicornia ramosissima J. Woods is a salt tolerant plant currently used in the human diet, whose genus not only displays great potential as a crop plant in deserts and highly saline soils, but also has value in traditional medicine and exhibits promising biological activities. The present study was designed to evaluate the effect of S. ramosissima ethanolic extract on carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced testicular damage in a mouse model and identify secondary metabolites present in the tested extract. The histopathological analysis showed that the treatment with the ethanolic extract prior to CCl4 administration prevented significantly the architectural disorder of seminiferous epithelium and germ cell exfoliation. The phytochemical study allowed the identification of known phenolic and aliphatic compounds [ethyl linolenoate (1), sitostanol (2), octadecyl (3) and eicosanyl (4) (E)-ferulates, ethyl (E)-2-hydroxycinnamate (5), scopoletin (6), a triacylglycerol of tetracosanoic acid (7)], and three new compounds: saliramoester, a long chain triester (8), saliramophenone, a propiophenone derivative (9) and saliramopyrrole a pyrrole-3-carbaldehyde derivative (10). Their chemical structures were elucidated using detailed spectroscopic studies (1D and 2D NMR and MS). These results enhance the value of S. ramosissima as an excellent source of structurally interesting phytochemicals and as protective agent against testicular toxicity

Salicornia ramosissima: Secondary metabolites and protective effect against acute testicular toxicity

Salicornia ramosissima J. Woods is a salt tolerant plant currently used in the human diet, whose genus not only displays great potential as a crop plant in deserts and highly saline soils, but also has value in traditional medicine and exhibits promising biological activities. The present study was designed to evaluate the effect of S. ramosissima ethanolic extract on carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced testicular damage in a mouse model and identify secondary metabolites present in the tested extract. The histopathological analysis showed that the treatment with the ethanolic extract prior to CCl4 administration prevented significantly the architectural disorder of seminiferous epithelium and germ cell exfoliation. The phytochemical study allowed the identification of known phenolic and aliphatic compounds [ethyl linolenoate (1), sitostanol (2), octadecyl (3) and eicosanyl (4) (E)-ferulates, ethyl (E)-2-hydroxycinnamate (5), scopoletin (6), a triacylglycerol of tetracosanoic acid (7)], and three new compounds: saliramoester, a long chain triester (8), saliramophenone, a propiophenone derivative (9) and saliramopyrrole a pyrrole-3-carbaldehyde derivative (10). Their chemical structures were elucidated using detailed spectroscopic studies (1D and 2D NMR and MS). These results enhance the value of S. ramosissima as an excellent source of structurally interesting phytochemicals and as protective agent against testicular toxicity

Lipophilic profile of the edible halophyte Salicornia ramosissima

Salicornia ramosissima J. Woods is considered, in the Iberian Peninsula and France, a gourmet product. Nevertheless, is one of the less studied Salicornia species. In this work, GC-MS was employed to, for the first time; fully characterise the lipophilic profile of S. ramosissima and to assess the effect of natural and extra irrigation in that profile. The obtained data showed esterified and free fatty acids, fatty alcohol, sterols, alkanes and aromatic acid derivatives, being palmitic acid, tetracosanol and octacosanol the most abundant compounds. The extra irrigation increases significantly (P < 0.001) the content of esterified lipophilic compounds. Stigmastanol, 24-ethyl-δ(22)-coprostenol, several secondary fatty alcohols and dicarboxylic acids were identified for the first time in Salicornia genus. Several of the detected compounds are known to have health benefits and our results suggest that S. ramosissima should be considered as an important dietary source of lipophilic phytochemicals