Ricerc@Sapienza

Stilbenes are a small family of polyphenolic secondary metabolites that can be found in several distantly related plant species. These compounds act as phytoalexins, playing a crucial role in plant defense against phytopathogens, as well as being involved in the adaptation of plants to abiotic environmental factors. Among stilbenes, trans-resveratrol is certainly the most popular and extensively studied for its health properties. In recent years, an increasing number of stilbene compounds were subjected to investigations concerning their bioactivity.

In this work, we report the study on the composition in primary and secondary metabolites of the polar and less-polar fractions obtained from the fruiting bodies of Suillus bellinii (Inzenga) Kuntze collected from Central Italy.

Stachys palustris, well-known as marsh woundwort, is a perennial herb growing in wet environments of Europe. Its tubers, leaves and seeds are eaten raw or cooked. Alike other Stachys species, the plant is also used as a traditional remedy. Despite S. palustris has been consumed for centuries, little is known about its chemical constituents. In this work the main secondary metabolites of S. palustris from Hungary and France have been analysed.

Background: Many studies have shown the benefits deriving from plants secondary metabolites to human health also for the prevention of several diseases associated to oxidative stress including cancer, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes mellitus. Nowadays there is a high attention on plant secondary metabolites and analytical techniques related to their identification and characterization. Conclusion: This review aims to report analytical procedures, instrumental configurations, and extraction approaches devoted to secondary metabolites analyses.

The rationale inspiring the discovery of lead compounds for the treatment of humanparasitic protozoan diseases from natural sources is the well-established use of medicinal plantsin various systems of traditional medicine. On this basis, we decided to select an overlookedmedicinal plant growing in central Italy,Marrubium incanumDesr.(Lamiaceae), which hasbeen used as a traditional remedy against protozoan diseases, and to investigate its potentialagainst Human African trypanosomiasis (HAT).

In this work, the secondary metabolite content of the EtOH extract of Kickxia spuria subsp. integrifolia (Brot.) R.Fern. is reported. Fourteen compounds were isolated and identified by means of column chromatography and NMR and MS instrumental techniques, respectively. Among the identified compounds, the chemotaxonomic markers of the species were evidenced, whereas others were reported for the first time in the genus. Among these, a new antirrhinoside derivative (12) was recognized.