Over 100 species of the genus Salsola are distributed in dry, arid parts of Asia, Europe and Africa, of which many species are recognised as antifungal, anticancer, antihypertensive and anthelmintic agents. Egyptian Salsola received scant characterisation of either its phytochemical composition or its biological effects. In this study, the metabolite profiles of two Salsola species viz. S. vermiculata and S. tetrandra were characterised in the aerial portions and root via ultra-performance liquid chromatography high-resolution qTOF-MS and NMR. Identified metabolites belonged to various classes including hydroxycinnamic acid conjugates, flavonoids, oxygenated fatty acids and alkaloids. Principal component analysis of derived biochemical profiles was also used for species and/or organs classification. Roots were enriched in hydroxycinnamic acid conjugates, whereas flavonoids were more abundant in aerial parts with kaempferol derivatives as major flavonoids in S. tetrandra versus quercetin in S. vermiculata. The root of S. vermiculata exhibited strong anti-acetylcholinesterase activity relative to eserine standard.
Trigonella foenum-graecum is a plant of considerable value for its nutritive composition as well as medicinal effects. This study aims to examine Trigonella seeds using a metabolome-based ultra-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS) in parallel to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) coupled with multivariate data analyses. The metabolomic differences of seeds derived from three Trigonella species, i.e., T. caerulea, T. corniculata, and T. foenum-graecum, were assessed. Under specified conditions, we were able to identify 93 metabolites including 5 peptides, 2 phenolic acids, 22 C/O-flavonoid conjugates, 26 saponins, and 9 fatty acids using UPLC-MS. Several novel dipeptides, saponins, and flavonoids were found in Trigonella herein for the first time. Samples were classified via unsupervised principal component analysis (PCA) followed by supervised orthogonal projection to latent structures-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA). A distinct separation among the investigated Trigonella species was revealed, with T. foenum-graecum samples found most enriched in apigenin-C-glycosides, viz. vicenins 1/3 and 2, compared to the other two species. In contrast to UPLC-MS, GC-MS was less efficient to classify specimens, with differences among specimens mostly attributed to fatty acyl esters. GC-MS analysis of Trigonella seed extracts led to the identification of 91 metabolites belonging mostly to fatty acyl esters, free fatty acids followed by organic acids, sugars, and amino acids. This study presents the first report on primary and secondary metabolite compositional differences among Trigonella seeds via a metabolomics approach and reveals that, among the species examined, the official T. foenum-graecum presents a better source of Trigonella secondary bioactive metabolites.
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