In the Romanian folk medicine, aerial parts of Ajuga laxmannii (“nobleman’s beard,” Romanian – “barba boierului” or “avrămească” or “creştinească”) are traditionally used as galactagogue and anti-inflammatory agents. The present study aimed to evaluate the chemical composition (polyphenols, iridoids, and phytosterols), antioxidant, antimicrobial and in vivo anti-inflammatory activity of different extracts of A. laxmannii aerial parts. The major identified bioactive compounds were rutin, 8-O-acetylharpagide and β-sitosterol. The antioxidant activity of A. laxmannii extracts was evaluated using several methods, and the results showed good antiradical effects. Moreover, the antimicrobial evaluation showed a potent antifungal activity against C. albicans and P. funiculosum. Furthermore, the anti-inflammatory effect was determined by monitoring some parameters involved in the inflammatory process. The results obtained showed differences between the analyzed extracts; and therefore the importance of choosing the best solvent in order to extract the appropriate amount of bioactive compounds. A. laxmannii ethanol extract showed an anti-inflammatory effect by reducing total leukocytes, PMN, phagocytosis, and oxidative stress. Compared to diclofenac, only the 50 mg/mL A. laxmannii extract had better anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative stress effects, and this could justify the importance of a correlation between the activity and the used concentration. These findings strongly suggest that A. laxmannii could be considered as a valuable source of bioactive compounds, which could be further valued as anti-inflammatory agents in the composition of several herbal drugs.

Artemisia campestris L. (field wormwood) is a known medicinal plant used mainly in Asian medicine and most often overlooked in the western world, despite its cosmopolitan distribution. The aim of this study was to investigate the phytochemical composition of A. campestris from Romanian spontaneous flora in order to determine the bioactive molecules and to assess the antioxidant effect of the plant extract. For this purpose, we applied LC-MS methods for the analysis of phytosterols and polyphenols and developed new methods for the analysis of methoxylated flavones and sesquiterpene lactones, specific compounds in Artemisia genus. The paper is the first to report the concentration of these compounds in the indigenous plant and also to identify some new compounds, previously not reported in this species, such as eupatorin, casticin, and acacetin. The plant extract showed significant antioxidant activity in both radical scavenging and reducing power assay, well correlated with the polyphenolic profile.

BackgroundAlthough Galanthus nivalis L. (snowdrop) is known for the galanthamine content, used in the treatment of Alzheimer disease, the polyphenolic compounds of Amaryllidaceae species are less studied. Proper understanding of the polyphenolics in these extracts and of their antioxidant and antimicrobial properties may allow a reconsideration of their medicinal uses.MethodsThe polyphenolic content of four selected Amaryllidaceae species harvested from Romania (Galanthus nivalis L., Narcissus pseudonarcissus L., N. poeticus L. and Leucojum vernum L.) was determined by spectrophotometric methods; the identification of phenolic compounds was performed by a HPLC-MS method, in order to establish their polyphenolic fingerprints. For the evaluation of the antioxidant potential the following methods were employed: DPPH radical scavenging, FRAP, hemoglobin ascorbate peroxidase activity inhibition (HAPX), inhibition of lipid peroxidation catalyzed by cytochrome c, and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy assays. Antimicrobial activity was assessed using the disc diffusion method.ResultsQualitative and quantitative analyses highlight important amount of polyphenols (over 15 mg/g); the main identified compounds are chlorogenic and p-coumaric acids in all species. Only G. nivalis shows antioxidant activity by all the used methods. G. nivalis and L. vernum strongly inhibits the growth of S. aureus, while N. poeticus shows a very good antifungal activity.ConclusionsThe results of this study provide a new approach to the properties and therapeutic uses of some Romanian widespread Amaryllidaceae species that could be considered sources of developing new medicinal products with anti anti-staphylococcal and antifungal activity.

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Dietary supplements containing natural compounds, including resveratrol, are increasingly used as health improving products. The present study had three objectives, namely: the quantification of resveratrol by HPLC-MS in nine dietary supplements, the qualitative and quantitative assessment of 18 phenolic acids and flavonoids in the same supplements, and finally the measurement of the antioxidant capacity of these products. The content of resveratrol in commercial samples ranged between 22.8 and 104.7 % of the declared amount. The highest number of polyphenols that could be quantified in a dietary supplement was nine. The values obtained for antioxidant capacity suggest that resveratrol supplements containing below 10 mg of the stilbene have, even in the presence of other components, a very low antioxidant capacity which may be insufficient for an attainment of the desired antioxidant status. To our knowledge, this is the first HPLC-analysis cumulating the quantification of resveratrol with that of eighteen other polyphenols in dietary supplements, giving an in-depth overview of their composition and health benefits from the viewpoint of antioxidant capacity.