Analytical Discrimination of Poisonous and Nonpoisonous Chemotypes of Giant Fennel (Ferula communis L.) through Their Biologically Active and Volatile Fractions

Patrizia Rubiolo,*† Maura Matteodo,† Giovanna Riccio,† Mauro Ballero,‡ Philippe Christen,§ Sandrine Fleury-Souverain,§ Jean-Luc Veuthey,§ and Carlo Bicchi†
Dipartimento di Scienza e Tecnologia del Farmaco, Universit degli Studi di Torino, via P. Giuria 9, I-10125 Torino, Italy; Dipartimento di Scienze Botaniche, Universit degli Studi di Cagliari, Viale S. Ignazio 13, I-09100 Cagliari, Italy; and Laboratory of Analytical Pharmaceutical Chemistry, School of Pharmacy, Geneva University 20, Bd d'Yvoy 1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland
J. Agric. Food Chem., 2006, 54 (20), pp 7556–7563
DOI: 10.1021/jf061592t
Publication Date (Web): September 12, 2006
Copyright © 2006 American Chemical Society
*

 Corresponding author (telephone +39 011 670 7662; fax +39 011 670 7687; e-mail patrizia.rubiolo@unito.it).

,
†

 Università degli Studi di Torino.

,
‡

 Università degli Studi di Cagliari.

,
§

 Geneva University.

Abstract

Giant fennel (Ferula communis L.) from Sardinia is characterized by two chemotypes with different biological activities. One chemotype is poisonous, due to prenylcoumarins, and responsible for ferulosis, which mainly affects sheep and goats, cattle, and horses; the other chemotype is nonpoisonous and contains daucane esters. The two chemotypes cannot be distinguished botanically. High-performance liquid chromatography−diode array−ultraviolet detection−mass spectrometry (HPLC-DAD-UV-MS) analysis of the composition of the fractions containing the biologically active metabolites and of the volatile fractions, by gas chromatography−mass spectrometry (GC-MS), of both essential oil and headspace sampled by headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) are here shown to be effective in discriminating the poisonous and nonpoisonous chemotypes. HS-SPME with CAR/PDMS/DVB in combination with GC-MS has also been found to be a successful, fully automated one-step method for rapid and unequivocal discrimination of the two chemotypes, using aristolene and allohedycaryol as markers of the poisonous and nonpoisonous chemotypes, respectively.

Keywords: Ferula communis L.; poisonous chemotype; nonpoisonous chemotype; prenylated coumarins; daucane esters; essential oils; headspace

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History

  • Published In Issue October 04, 2006
  • Received for review June 7, 2006. Revised manuscript received July 21, 2006. Accepted August 3, 2006. This research was carried out within the project “Metaboliti secondari da piante medicinali ed alimentari:  caratterizzazione chimica ed attività biologica” of the Ministero per la Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica (MURST) (Italy).

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