Chemical profiling of the fruits of Styrax officinalis L. from Monti Lucretili (Latium region, Central Italy). Chemotaxonomy and nutraceutical potential

In this work, the first phytochemical analysis ever performed on the fruits of Styrax officinalis L. (Styracaceae) collected from a population vegetating in the Mounts Lucretili National Park (Italy) was reported. Fifteen compounds were identified: tri-α-linolenoyl-sn-glycerol (1), 1,2-di-α-linolenoyl-3-linoleoyl-sn-glycerol (2), 1-α-linolenoyl-2-palmitoyl-sn-glycerol (3), 1,2-di-α-linolenoyl-sn-glycerol (4), egonol (5), emethylegonol (6), homoegonol (7), 1,5-anhydro-D-mannitol (8), glucose (9), sucrose (10), 6'-O-benzoyl-sucrose (11), raffinose (12), lactic acid (13), succinic acid (14) and glutamic acid (15). These compounds belong to seven different classes of natural metabolites and most of them have chemotaxonomic relevance. Moreover, S. officinalis might be an useful source of enantiopure 1,5-anhydro-D-mannitol which has several medicinal potentialities and is a versatile building block in organic synthesis, in particular for what concern the “Green” approaches, of valuable and potentially biologically active molecules. The presence of compounds (1-15) provides also a phytochemical rationale for the ancient ethnopharmacological uses of the species and affords evidences on its nutraceutical potentialities even for their consumption as food in human nutrition as it actually happens for animals.