Comparison of Nutritional Compositions and Essential Oil Profiles of Different Parts of a Dill and Two Fennel Cultivars

Abstract

Fennel and dill are widely used as food additives owing to their various biological activities, such as antioxidants, antimicrobials, food-preservatives, and seasoning capacities. Herein, the nutritional composition and essential oil (EO) chemical profiles of fruits, umbels, stalks, and roots from one dill and two fennel cultivars were evaluated. The fruits had the highest content of crude protein (≥ 15%), crude fat (≥ 8%), and phosphorus (≥ 0.5%), and exhibited the highest total energy (≥ 20 MJ/kg) and EO yield (≥ 2%). Moreover, estragole (86.56% in Fdf), anethole (71.17% in Fhf), fenchone (16.74% in Fhf), limonene (50.19% in Agf), and carvone (42.41% in Agf) were the main components of the EOs generated from the fruits. The chemical profiles of EOs in the roots were significantly different from those of the aerial parts of the fennel and dill; thus, the roots and aerial parts could be distinguished based on myristicin (Variable Importance in Projection (VIP) = 1.90399) and apiol (VIP = 1.85922). The EO components of the aerial parts varied remarkably, and the chemical markers for differentiating these three cultivars were anethole (VIP = 1.36571), estragole (VIP = 1.30292), and carvone (VIP = 1.11947). Overall, our results provide a noteworthy chemical basis for further development of fennel and dill, especially as food additives.

Analysis of the Chemical Profiles and Anti-S. aureus Activities of Essential Oils Extracted from Different Parts of Three Oregano Cultivars

“…One-way analysis of variance was used to determine the significance of differences (p < 0.05). Heatmap analysis, principal component analysis (PCA) plots, UpSet plots, and Flower plots were evaluated using the R platform [13]. To further distinguish the differences and relationships of the three OEOs, a supervised statistical data treatment was performed using orthogonal projections to latent structures discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) using SIMCA (Version 14.1; Umetrics, Umea, Sweden).…”

“…Importantly, these compounds may be appropriate chemical markers for distinguishing the EOs of different oregano cultivars. The chemical markers from the aerial parts and roots of EOs from fennel and dill have been identified previously using the OPLS-DA model [13]. Overall, this comprehensive, multidimensional analysis of OEOs provides important insights into the screening of specific compounds and the evaluation of phytochemical characteristics in different samples.…”

Myristicin and Elemicin: Potentially Toxic Alkenylbenzenes in Food

“…Further relevant examples for plants and their essential oils containing myristicin and elemicin, as well as other selected alkenylbenzenes, are listed in Table 1. [27] (1435 ppm [29]; 3.6-526 ppm (leaf) [30]) Sweet fennel 2.5-10% (root) [31,32] Dill 0.21% (seed) [33]; 4.38% (root) [32] Parsnip 18.3-66.2% (root) [34,35] (200 ppm (root) [36]) Sweet basil 9.24-87.04% [15]; 0.03% (flower) [37,38]; 0.06% (stem) [37,38]; 0.18-76% (leaf) [37][38][39] 0.30% (stem) [37,38] Table 1. Cont.…”

“…For many alkenylbenzenes, it is widely accepted that the 1 -hydroxylation at the allylic side chain, followed by SULT-mediated sulfo conjugation yielding a highly electrophilic sulfate ester, might be the most relevant pathway leading to toxicity [10]. The sulfate ester may form inter alia DNA adducts as demonstrated by 32 P-postlabeling techniques and mass spectrometry [78,[100][101][102][103][104][105]. Structures of four DNA adducts formed in mouse liver after administration of the proximate hepatocarcinogen 1 -hydroxy-estragole were initially described by Phillips et al in 1981 [106,107].…”

“…In 2006, methyleugenol was also shown to form DNA adducts after hydroxylation and sulfonation. DNA adducts of methyleugenol were detected using 32 P-postlabeling techniques in the livers of F344 rats (n = 4 out of 8) exposed orally to 5 mg/kg/day for 28 days. No adducts were found after exposure to 1 mg/kg/day [113].…”