Phytochemical and bioactivities of male flower buds of fruit trees from the southern tunisia: polyphenols UPLC-MS profiles and antioxidant enzymatic potential in human plasma of Parkinson's disease patients

Abstract

Strong evidence supports that oxidative stress represents one of the most important pathogenic molecular events in the development of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Phenolic compounds have been widely known by their antioxidant properties. In this context, phenolic extracts from three different southwest Tunisian male flower buds of pistachio “Pistacia vera L.”, fig “Ficus carica L.” and date palm “Phoenix dactylifera L.”, were extracted using ethanol in 13.20%, 4.88% and 8.31% yields, respectively. The total phenolic and flavonoids content analysis were evaluated. Besides, the phenolic profiling was performed using ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS). Additionally, in vitro superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione reductase (GR) enzymatic activity and 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE) formation in human blood plasma of PD patients of the three phenolic extracts were assayed for the first time (0.5–50 µg/mL—the incubation time 25 min). The results showed that the three phenolic extracts tested presented a significant antioxidant enzymatic property expressed by the increase of plasma SOD activity of Parkinsonian patients at different stages of the disease. On the other hand, the phenolic extracts from pistachio and fig showed important increases of plasma GR activity of PD patients at stage 2. Pearson correlation coefficients were established between the total phenolic and flavonoids content, the common phenolic compounds detected in the tested extracts and their effects on SOD, GR activities as well as on the 4-HNE formation.