No abstract

No abstract

BackgroundSarma - cooked leaves rolled around a filling made from rice and/or minced meat, possibly vegetables and seasoning plants – represents one of the most widespread feasting dishes of the Middle Eastern and South-Eastern European cuisines. Although cabbage and grape vine sarma is well-known worldwide, the use of alternative plant leaves remains largely unexplored. The aim of this research was to document all of the botanical taxa whose leaves are used for preparing sarma in the folk cuisines of Turkey and the Balkans.MethodsField studies were conducted during broader ethnobotanical surveys, as well as during ad-hoc investigations between the years 2011 and 2014 that included diverse rural communities in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey. Primary ethnobotanical and folkloric literatures in each country were also considered.ResultsEighty-seven botanical taxa, mainly wild, belonging to 50 genera and 27 families, were found to represent the bio-cultural heritage of sarma in Turkey and the Balkans. The greatest plant biodiversity in sarma was found in Turkey and, to less extent, in Bulgaria and Romania.The most commonly used leaves for preparing sarma were those of cabbage (both fresh and lacto-fermented), grape vine, beet, dock, sorrel, horseradish, lime tree, bean, and spinach. In a few cases, the leaves of endemic species (Centaurea haradjianii, Rumex gracilescens, and R. olympicus in Turkey) were recorded.Other uncommon sarma preparations were based on lightly toxic taxa, such as potato leaves in NE Albania, leaves of Arum, Convolvulus, and Smilax species in Turkey, of Phytolacca americana in Macedonia, and of Tussilago farfara in diverse countries. Moreover, the use of leaves of the introduced species Reynoutria japonica in Romania, Colocasia esculenta in Turkey, and Phytolacca americana in Macedonia shows the dynamic nature of folk cuisines.ConclusionThe rich ethnobotanical diversity of sarma confirms the urgent need to record folk culinary plant knowledge. The results presented here can be implemented into initiatives aimed at re-evaluating folk cuisines and niche food markets based on local neglected ingredients, and possibly also to foster trajectories of the avant-garde cuisines inspired by ethnobotanical knowledge.

The essential oils of two species of Sideritis growing spontaneously in Bulgaria and Macedonia are reported, Sideritis scardica and Sideritis raeseri. The oils of S. scardica from different locations differed significantly: in the Macedonian sample alpha-cadinol (20%) predominated, while in the oil of Bulgarian samples the main components were diterpenic compounds and octadecenol (over 20%). This is the first report of ditrpenoids in essential oil of S. scardica. The oil of S. raeseri demonstrated a distinct chemical profile with its high concentration of sesquiterpenes, main components being germacrone (25%) and elemol acetate (15.9%). The observed qualitative variability of the oil composition of S. scardica of different geographic origin could be a result of different ecologic conditions but might also reflect the well-known tendency of some Sideritis species to hybridize.

Chemical composition and antioxidant activity of essential oils and methanol extracts of needles of Pinus mugo native to R. Macedonia were investigated. Plant material was collected on Karadzica Mountain during two seasons. Essential oil was obtained by steam distillation and was analyzed by GC/FID/MS. 8 major constituents were identified:  3 -carene, -pinene, limonene+-phellandrene, germacrene D, transcaryophyllene, -cadinene, bicyclogermacrene and -cadinol. Identification of flavonoids and phenolic compounds in methanol extracts was made by LC-DAD/ESI-MS n . 14 compounds were identified (2 phenolic acids, 2 procyanidins, 7 flavonol glycosides and 3 flavonol acylated glycosides). Total phenolic content (TPC) and total flavonoid content (TFC) were measured by Folin-Ciocalteau and aluminum chloride assay, respectively. TPC and TFC values ranged from 11.41-12.17 mgGAE/g and from 4.65-6.03 mgCE/g for dried plant material, respectively. Evaluation of antioxidant activity was made using DPPH and TBARS test. IC50 values for the methanol extract ranged from 11.58-16.01 mg/mL for DPPH and from 9.41-15.76 mg/mL for TBARS assay. IC50 values for the essential oil ranged from 2.51-4.26 mg/mL and 2.59-4.14 mg/mL for DPPH and TBARS assay, respectively. The needles from Macedonian P. mugo could be considered as a potential plant source for isolation of essential oil as well as flavonoids and other phenolics as they exhibit promising antioxidant activity. Additionally, further investigation and evaluation of chemical composition as well as biological activity should be done in order to provide more data for their possible medicinal, pharmaceutical and commercial utilization.

In the present work, the polyphenolic profile and content of four Teucrium species (T. chamaedrys L., T. montanum L., T. polium L., T. scordium L.) from the Macedonian flora were examined. A LC/DAD/ESI-MS n chromatographic method was optimized and 31 phenolic compounds were identified, quantified and classified into four groups: hydroxycinnamic acid derivatives (2), phenylethanoid glycosides (12), flavonoid glycosides (11) and flavonoid aglycones (6). The total phenolic content (mg/g dry herb) ranged from 28.2 (T. montanum), 30.9 (T. scordium), 35.1 (T. polium) to 52.1 (T. chamaedrys). Phenylethanoid glycosides were the predominant group of polyphenols in the studied samples contributing 60% of the total phenolic content for T. polium and T. scordium and around 90% for T. montanum and T. chamaedrys. The systematic analysis for identification and quantification of all present phenolic compounds contributes to the chemotaxonomy of the investigated Teucrium species and to the valorization based on their phenolic profiles and content.

The results demonstrate that examined plant extracts contain flavonoids with insulinotropic and antihyperglycemic effects.

Cannabis is gaining increasing attention due to the high pharmacological potential and updated legislation authorizing multiple uses. The development of time- and cost-efficient analytical methods is of crucial importance for phytocannabinoid profiling. This review aims to capture the versatility of analytical methods for phytocannabinoid profiling of cannabis and cannabis-based products in the past four decades (1980–2021). The thorough overview of more than 220 scientific papers reporting different analytical techniques for phytocannabinoid profiling points out their respective advantages and drawbacks in terms of their complexity, duration, selectivity, sensitivity and robustness for their specific application, along with the most widely used sample preparation strategies. In particular, chromatographic and spectroscopic methods, are presented and discussed. Acquired knowledge of phytocannabinoid profile became extremely relevant and further enhanced chemotaxonomic classification, cultivation set-ups examination, association of medical and adverse health effects with potency and/or interplay of certain phytocannabinoids and other active constituents, quality control (QC), and stability studies, as well as development and harmonization of global quality standards. Further improvement in phytocannabinoid profiling should be focused on untargeted analysis using orthogonal analytical methods, which, joined with cheminformatics approaches for compound identification and MSLs, would lead to the identification of a multitude of new phytocannabinoids.