Sea fennel: Phytochemical analysis of Greek wild and cultivated Crithmum maritimum L. populations, based on HPLC-PDA-MS and NMR methods

Abstract

Sea fennel (Crithmum maritimum L.; Apiaceae) consists a major component of the Mediterranean diet and is considered as a functional food. Accumulating studies described its various pharmacological studies. In the last few years, there is an effort of cultivating this important medicinal species for uses in traditional medicine, in food and in cosmetic/pharmaceutic industries. Therefore, the identification of the chemical profile of the cultivated species compared to the wild populations is an urgent need, in order to standardize high quality end-products. As a result, the present study focuses on the analysis of the extracts from wild and cultivated C. maritimum populations, characterizing the extracts qualitatively and quantitatively by HPLC-PDA-MS. Based on NMR spectroscopy, the methanol and the cyclohexane extracts were further investigated, leading to the isolation and identification of ten compounds. Our results are congruous with previous studies, mentioning the presence of well-known antioxidants in plant foods of Mediterranean diet.