Organic acids of mesembryanthemum forskalii herb and flowers

Abstract

Plants are an important source of biologically active compounds that have been used for ages all over the world to treat and prevent various disorders. Samh (Mesembryanthemum forskalii Hochst) is a plant traditionally used in Saudi Arabia as a medicinal plant, and a profound study of its chemical constituents is needed. Carboxylic acids are one of the most important classes of biologically active compounds that possess antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antitumor and other properties. So the scope of present paper was to study the composition and content of organic acids in M. forskalii herb and flowers. As the results have shown, both types of the plant material studied have revealed the presence of 26 organic acids with hexadicarboxylic acid present only in the herb and 2-hydroxy-3-methylglutaric acid detected in the flowers only. Both types of the plant material studied tend to accumulate oxalic, malic and citric acids, while flowers were also rich in levulinic, linoleic, succinic and ferulic acids.