Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Activities of Stellera chamaejasme L. Roots and Aerial Parts Extracts

Natural products, mainly plants, have a crucial role in folk medicine. Particularly, Stellera chamaejasme L. has been traditionally used in Mongolian medicine to treat various diseases, including chronic tracheitis, tuberculosis, and psoriasis. In this study, ethanol (EtOH) and dichloromethane (DCM) extracts of its roots (R) and aerial parts (AP) were evaluated for their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. Thin-layer chromatography demonstrated the presence of flavonoids, namely kaempferol and quercetin-3-O-glucopyranoside, only in the EtOH-AP. Conversely, it showed that kaempferol, quercetin-3-O-glucopyranoside, coumarin, luteolin, rutin, morin, and riboflavin were not present in the other three extracts. The S. chamaejasme extracts exhibited strong antioxidant activity. In addition, the roots extracts presented the highest antioxidant activity against peroxyl radicals, with the EtOH-R being the most potent (IC50 = 0.90 ± 0.07 µg/mL). S. chamaejasme extracts also efficiently inhibited the production of one of the main pro-inflammatory cytokines, interleukin (IL)-6, in a dose-dependent manner by lipopolysaccharide-stimulated macrophages. Particularly, DCM-R was the strongest extract, reducing â 91.5% of the IL-6 production. Since this extract was the most effective, gas chromatographyâ mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analyses were performed and demonstrated the presence of two fatty acids (palmitic acid and 9-octadecenoic acid), one fatty alcohol (1-hexadecanol), and one triterpenoid (squalene) that can contribute to the observed bioactivity. Herewith, S. chamaejasme extracts, mainly DCM-R, exhibit antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities that could be applied as new and innovative natural formulations for the treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases.This research was funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) to the Ph.D. grant of SFV (PD/BD/135246/2017 and COVID/BD/152012/2021) and the projects PATH (PD/00169/2013), Cells4_IDs (PTDC/BTM-SAL/28882/2017) and the NORTE 2020 Structured Project co-funded by Norte2020 (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000021). The authors also acknowledge the REMIX Project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Maria Sklodowska Curie Grant (778078 H2020-MSCA-RISE-2017)

Atmospheric Deposition of Trace Elements Around Ulan-Bator City Studied by Moss and Lichen Biomonitoring Technique and INAA

For the first time the moss and lichen biomonitoring technique has been applied to air pollution in Mongolia (Ulan-Bator, the capital city). INAA at the IBR-2 reactor has made it possible to determine the content of 35 elements in moss and lichen biomonitors. Samples collected at sites located 10-15 km from the center of Ulan-Bator were analyzed by Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) using epithermal neutrons. The mosses (\textit{Rhytidium rugosum}, \textit{Thuidium abietinum}, \textit{Entodon concinnus}) and lichens (\textit{Cladonia stellaris}, \textit{Parmelia separata}) were used to study the atmospheric deposition of trace elements. It was shown that the suggested types of mosses could be used as suitable biomonitors to estimate the concentration levels of heavy metals and trace elements in Ulan-Bator atmospheric deposition. The results are compared to the data of atmospheric deposition of some European countries