Phytochemical Profile and Antioxidant Capacity of Viscum album L. Subsp. album and Effects on Its Host Trees

Eva Kleszken; Cornelia Purcarea; Annamaria Pallag; Floricuta Ranga; Adriana Ramona Memete; Florina Miere Groza; Simona Ioana Vicas

doi:10.3390/plants11223021

Phytochemical Profile and Antioxidant Capacity of Viscum album L. Subsp. album and Effects on Its Host Trees

Plants (Basel). 2022 Nov 9;11(22):3021. doi: 10.3390/plants11223021.

Authors

Eva Kleszken¹, Cornelia Purcarea², Annamaria Pallag³, Floricuta Ranga⁴, Adriana Ramona Memete^{1

2}, Florina Miere Groza³, Simona Ioana Vicas²

Affiliations

¹ Doctoral School of Biomedical Science, University of Oradea, 1 Universitatii Street, 410087 Oradea, Romania.
² Department of Food Engineering, Faculty of Environmental Protection, University of Oradea, 26 Gen. Magheru Street, 410048 Oradea, Romania.
³ Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, University of Oradea, 10 P-ta 1 December Street, 410073 Oradea, Romania.
⁴ Department of Food Science, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Cluj-Napoca, 3-5 Mănăstur Street, 400372 Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

Abstract

Viscum album L. subsp. album is a hemiparasitic plant that is recognized as a medicinal plant due to its beneficial effects, including anti-tumor activity, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-hepatotoxic, hypoglycemic, and antimicrobial properties as well as for lowering blood pressure. On the other hand, mistletoe is a biotic stressor for both deciduous trees and conifers. Our main aim was to evidence the influence of mistletoe on the content of chlorophylls, proline, total phenols, flavonoids, and antioxidant capacity of leaves from tree host trees (Malus domestica, Prunus domestica, and Populus alba) that grow on the northwest of Romania. In addition, HPLC-DAD-MS-ESI+ was used to analyze the phenolic acid and flavonoid profiles of V. album L. subsp. album leaves according to their parasitized hosts. A significant decrease in chlorophyll a level of approximately 32% was detected in poplars infested with mistletoe, followed by infested apples and plums with pigment reductions of 29.25% and 9.65%, respectively. The content of total phenols and flavonoids in the parasitized trees was higher compared to the non-parasitized ones. In the case of poplar, which presented the highest incidence of mistletoe infestation (70.37%), the content of total phenols in the leaves was two times higher compared to non-infested leaves. Based on HPLC chromatographic analysis, leaves of mistletoe growing on apple (VAM) had the highest content of phenolic acids (7.833 mg/g dw), followed by mistletoe leaves on poplar (VAO) and plum (VAP) (7.033 mg/g dw and, respectively, 5.559 mg/g dw). Among the flavonols, the predominant component was Rhamnazin glucosides in the amount of 1.025 ± 0.08 mg/g dw in VAO, followed by VAP and VAM (0.514 ± 0.04 and 0.478 ± 0.04 mg/g dw, respectively). Although our results show that mistletoe negatively influences the host trees, it is still a valuable plant that must be exploited to bring benefits to human health.

Keywords: Viscum album L. subsp. album; antioxidant capacity; chlorophylls; flavonoids; host trees; proline.

Grants and funding

This work was funded by CNFIS-FDI-2022-102 Project —Development of multidisciplinary research and innovation capacities using emerging technologies_CIMTE.