Ricerc@Sapienza

Archaeobotanical remains from the Phoenician – Punic site of Motya, set in the Marsala Lagoon in Western Sicily (Italy), were collected through flotation and sieving during the excavation campaigns of 2017–2019. Analyses focused on a sacrificial favissa, on the SW side of the Temple of Cappiddazzu, dedicated to Melqart/Herakles, where the buried remains of seven bovines were also found. Plant remains, preserved mostly by mineralisation, provide information about ritual practices.

Four pyrrolizidine alkaloids, namely 7-O-angeloyllycopsamine N-oxide 1, echimidine N-oxide 2, echimidine 3 and 7-O-angeloylretronecine 4, were isolated for the first time from the whole plant ethanolic extract of Echium confusum Coincy, through bioassay-guided approach. Their structures were determined by spectroscopic means. All the isolates compounds showed moderate activities in inhibiting AChE, with IC50 0.276–0.769.