Ricerc@Sapienza

In spite of the growing interest in essential oils (EOs) and their commercial importance, it is not yet clear how development factors influence the plant material optimum harvesting period for EOs production. factors that determine the EOs' composition and yield are numerous, and in some cases, it is quite difficult to isolate them as many are interdependent and influenced by each other. Therefore, EOs chemical composition is subject to high quantitative and qualitative variations, as well as their related biological activities or properties.

The aim of this study is to define chemical composition and antiproliferative activity of several compounds isolated from Schinus molle male and female flowers on human neuroblastoma (SH-SY5Y) and human leukemia (HL60) cell lines. Three extracts obtained by using solvents with different polarities (petroleum ether, diethyl ether and acetone) were characterized by GC/MS analysis revealing qualitative and quantitative differences in the chemical composition of male and female flowers.

Celery is a widely used vegetable known for its peculiar sensorial and nutritional properties. Here, the white celery (Apium graveolens L.) “sedano bianco di Sperlonga” PGI ecotype was investigated to obtain the metabolic profile of its edible parts (blade leaves and petioles) also related to quality, freshness and biological properties. A multi-methodological approach, including NMR, MS, HPLC-PDA, GC–MS and spectrophotometric analyses, was proposed to analyse celery extracts.