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Lepidium spp. and Allium spp. as a source of volatile sulphur compounds

Sulphur-containing plant metabolites include a variety of chemical structures, varying from primary metabolites such as sulphur-containing amino acids to secondary metabolites like, thiosulfinates, glucosinolates and others. In recent years, volatile sulphur compounds (VSCs) have been assigned important biological properties, including antioxidant, cancer chemopreventive, blood lipid reducing, antibacterial, neuroprotective and immunomodulatory effects, as well as apoptosis induction activity [1]. The aim of the work was to uncover sulphur containing constituents by isolation of the volatiles using hydrodistillation in Clevenger type apparatus followed by GC-MS analyses. Lepidium (Brassicaceae) is a genus that includes about 175 different plant species strikingly characterized by glucosinolates as molecular tags. The roots of three species, wild-growing L. graminifolium (grassleaf pepperweed), and cultivated L. latifolium (pepperwort, or peppergrass) and L. meyenii (maca) were investigated to uncover glucosinolates (GLs) by their degradation volatile products, mostly isothiocyanates and nitriles. The main GLs found in the roots of investigated Lepidium ssp. were: benzyl GL (glucotropaeolin) in L. graminifolium accompanied with 2-phenylethyl GL (gluconasturtiin) and 3-methoxybenzyl GL (glucolimnanthin) as a minor ones ; allyl GL (sinigrin) in L. latifolium roots accompanied with the sec-butyl GL (glucocochlearin) and glucotropeolin as the minor ones ; glucotropaeolin in L. meyenii accompanied with minor glucolimnanthin. Allium (Amaryllidaceae) is a large and very important genus which comprises of more than 500 species. Thiosulfinates and thiosulfonates are sulphuric compounds specifically found in this genus, where allicin an unsaturated thiosulfinate, has been found to possess striking biological properties [3]. The bulbs of wild-growing A. commutatum (Mediterranean onion), and cultivated A. cepa (onions, three varieties – red, white, yellow), and A. sativum (garlic) were investigated. The sulphur volatiles that constituted the major portion of the oil were: methyl (methylthio)methyl disulfide and dimethyltrisulfide in A. commutatum ; dipropyl disulfide and dipropyl trisulfide in all A. cepa varieties ; di-2-propenyldisulfide, along with 2-vinyl-1, 3-dithiane and 3, 3’-thiobis-1-propene in A. sativum.

Lepidium, Allium, glucosinolates, cysteine sulfoxides

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