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Free phenolic acids in Micromeria Croatica (Pers.) Schoott measured by UPLC-MS/MS

Croatia harbors about 500 endemic and subendemic species out of the total number of 5000 registered plants. The phytochemical profiles of most of these species have not yet been described. One of them is Micromeria croatica (Pers.) Schott., an endemic Illyric-Balcanic species from genus Micromeria Benth. (family Lamiaceae Lindl.) known in Balkan ethnopharmacology for its multiple uses in traditional medicine. Traditional medicinal plants are especially rich sources of polyphenols and medicinal plant extracts are effective in treating various ailments caused by oxidative stress and free radicals, bacterial and/or viral infections. Phenolic acids are an important group of polyphenolic compounds which play important roles in plant resistance to pathogens and herbivores, allelopathy, oxidative stress and plant growth regulation. These compounds have also been shown to exert beneficial effects on human health. The research presented here was aimed at characterizing the free phenolic acid composition using UPLC-MS/MS as well as total phenol (TP) and total flavonoid (TF) contents using spectrophotometric methods in methanol extracts of M. Croatica flowers, stems and leaves from three mountainous localities in Croatia (Bačić kuk, Šušanj and Bojinac). The highest TP content was determined for leaf extracts from Bačić kuk (29.74 ±1.05 mg GAE/g dw) while the flower extract from Bačić kuk (27.67±2.25 mg CE/g dw) showed the highest TF content followed by the leaf extracts from Bojinac (26.42±1.93 mg CE/g dw) and Bačić kuk (26.19±0.03 mg CE/g dw). Twelve free phenolic acids were quantified in flower, stem and leaf extracts of M. croatica collected at different localities. Free gallic, 3- hydroxybenzoic, chlorogenic, vanillic and sinapic acids were not detected in extracts. Caffeic acid was found only in the stem extract from Stupačinovo (103.3±17.3 μmol/g dw), ferulic acid in the stem extracts from Stupačinovo (26.1±3.9 μmol/g dw) and Bojinac (23.3±3.1 μmol/g dw), and syringic acid in the stem extracts from Stupčainovo ( 83.8±3.9 μmol/g dw), Bojinac (66.6±6.3 μmol/g dw) and Bčaić kuk ( 80.5±7.1 μmol/g dw). Overall, the stem (166.33±38.26 μmol/g dw) extracts contained significantly higher average content of free salicylic acid compared to the flower (86.40±17.59 μmol/g dw) and leaf extracts (60.67±6.89 μmol/g dw). The present study reports for the first time the free phenolic acid content of different plant parts of endemic plant Micromeria croatica (Pers.) Schott. According to these results M. croatica is a rich source of potent phenolic antioxidants including flavonoids and phenolic acids. Significantly higher TP and TF contents were found in leaves and flowers in comparison to stems of Micromeria croatica (Pers.) Schott, while significantly higher content of salicylic acid - phenolic acid used in treatment of pain and inflammation - were found in stem extracts.

medicinal plamt; Micromeria croatica (Pers.) Schott.; UPLC-MS/MS

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