Untargeted Metabolic Fingerprinting Reveals Impact of Growth Stage and Location on Composition of Sea Buckthorn (Hippophaë Rhamnoides) Leaves

Sea buckthorn (Hippophaë rhamnoides) is increasingly cultivated to produce raw materials for food and nutraceuticals. There is little knowledge on composition of sea buckthorn leaves (SBLs) and the key factors influencing the composition. This research aims to unravel the metabolic profile of SBLs and the effects of cultivar, location and stage of growth, and climatic conditions on the metabolic profile of SBLs. Leaves of two sea buckthorn cultivars grown in the south and north of Finland during two consecutive growth seasons were studied using untargeted nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) metabolomics. The highest variance in the metabolic profile was linked to the growth stage, wherein leaves from the first 7 weeks of harvest were characterized with higher abundance of polyphenols, while relatively higher abundance of carbohydrates and sugars was observed in the later weeks. The growth location attributed for the second highest variation, wherein the north–south comparison identified fatty acids and sugars as discriminatory metabolites, and the potential association of metabolome to natural abiotic stressors was revealed. An inverse correlation between carbohydrate/sugar content as well as fatty acids of higher carbon chain length with the temperature variables was evident. The supervised chemometric models with high sensitivity and specificity classified and predicted the samples based on growth stage and location, and cultivar. Nontargeted NMR-metabolomics revealed the metabolic profile of SBLs and their variation associated with various biotic and abiotic factors. Cultivar and growth stage are key factors to consider when harvesting SBLs for use in food and nutraceuticals.Practical ApplicationGlobally, sea buckthorn cultivation has been rapidly increasing due to the known health-promoting benefits of the berries and leaves of the plant. The current research obtained new comprehensive information on the compositional profile of sea buckthorn leaves as well as the impact of major contributory factors, such as cultivars, the advancement of growth stage, geographical location, and weather parameters. The findings of this research provide new knowledge and guidance for plant breeding, cultivation and commercial utilization of sea buckthorn leaves as raw materials for food, feed, and nutraceuticals.</p

Sephadex LH-20 fractionation and bioactivities of phenolic compounds from extracts of Finnish berry plants

In order to assist developing a natural, safe food-preservative, aqueous ethanolic extracts of leaves and berries of eight Finnish berry plants were fractionated with Sephadex LH-20 column chromatography. For each fraction, phenolic compounds were analyzed with NMR, UPLC-DAD-ESI-MS and HPLC-DAD. The antioxidant activities of the fractions were investigated using oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) assay, and the antibacterial activities were evaluated against foodborne pathogens Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. Antioxidant activities of the fractions correlated highly with both the total concentration and structural feature of phenolic compounds, including both flavonoids and non-flavonoid phenolics. ORAC value correlated strongly with the concentration of (+)-catechin, (−)-epicatecin, quercetin glycosides, and anthocyanins. Increase in size and number of sugar moieties may reduce the antioxidative activities of quercetin glycosides. Type of sugar moieties may have a significant role in influencing peroxyl-radicals scavenging ability of quercetin glycosides with monosaccharides as a single sugar moieties. Most of the fractions inhibited the target microbes. S. aureus strains expressed a higher sensitivity to phenolic compounds than E. coli strains.</p

Phenolic compounds extracted by acidic aqueous ethanol from berries and leaves of different berry plants

Phenolic compounds of berries and leaves of thirteen various plant species were extracted with aqueousethanol and analyzed with UPLC-DAD-ESI-MS, HPLC-DAD, and NMR. The total content of phenolics wasconsistently higher in leaves than in berries (25–7856 vs. 28–711 mg/100 g fresh weight). Sea buckthornleaves were richest in phenolic compounds (7856 mg/100 g f.w.) with ellagitannins as the dominant compoundclass. Sea buckthorn berries contained mostly isorhamnetin glycosides, whereas quercetin glycosideswere typically abundant in most samples investigated. Anthocyanins formed the dominating groupof phenolics in most dark-colored berries but phenolic acid derivatives were equally abundant in saskatoonand chokeberry berries. Caffeoylquinic acids constituted 80% of the total phenolic content(1664 mg/100 g f.w.) in bilberry leaves. B-type procyanidins and caffeoylquinic acids were the major phenoliccompounds in hawthorn and rowanberry, respectively. Use of leaves of some species with prunasin,tyramine and b-p-arbutin, may be limited in food applications.</p

The presence of herpesviruses in malignant but not in benign or recurrent pleomorphic adenomas

Background: The etiology of salivary gland tumors is mainly unknown. The anatomical location of the salivary glands, with the mucosal pathway to the oral cavity and its rich microbiome, raises the question of potential viral background.Objective: This study focuses on the potential presence of herpes-, polyoma- and parvoviruses in pleomorphic adenoma (PA), recurrent pleomorphic adenoma (RPA) and carcinoma ex pleomorphic adenoma (CaxPA).Methods: Thirty different viruses were analyzed by PCR-based assays in 68 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded salivary gland tumors (25 PA, 31 RPA and 12 CaxPA).Results: Virus DNA was detected altogether in 19/68 (28%) tumor samples. Human herpesviruses 6B and 7 (HHV-6B and HHV-7) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) were frequently and almost exclusively found in CaxPA (5/12, 7/12, and 3/12, respectively). Within the 7 CaxPA that were virus-positive, 3 samples contained 3, and 1 sample even 4, different viruses. Infrequent viral positivity was shown for parvovirus B19 and cutavirus, as well as Merkel cell and Malawi polyomaviruses.Conclusions: Our unexpected finding of herpesvirus DNA almost exclusively in CaxPA tissues deserves further in-depth studies.</p