AUTHOR=Farràs Adrià , Mitjans Montserrat , Maggi Filippo , Caprioli Giovanni , Vinardell María Pilar , López Víctor 

TITLE=Exploring wild Aspleniaceae ferns as safety sources of polyphenols: The case of Asplenium trichomanes L. and Ceterach officinarum Willd.

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Nutrition

VOLUME=9

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2022.994215

DOI=10.3389/fnut.2022.994215

ISSN=2296-861X

ABSTRACT=<p>The forest ecosystem is a source of material resources used since ancient times by mankind. Ferns are part of different oriental systems of traditional medicine due to the phytochemical variety of their fronds, which have allowed their traditional use to be validated through ethnopharmacological studies. In Europe, different cultures have used the same fern with a wide variety of applications due to its presence in most European forests. In recent years, studies on the phytocharacterization and biological activity of the fronds of the main European ferns have been published. In this study, the presence of polyphenolic phytochemicals has been evaluated by high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) in the fronds of two wild ferns together with <italic>in vitro</italic> activities in non-tumoral and human tumoral cell lines. The polyphenols were extracted from <italic>Asplenium trichomanes</italic> L. and <italic>Ceterach officinarum</italic> Willd. by cold maceration using methanol. The main phytochemicals of polyphenolic origin in the extracts of <italic>A. trichomanes</italic> and <italic>C. officinarum</italic> determined by HPLC-MS/MS were the flavonol hyperoside and the phenolic acid chlorogenic acid, respectively. This different polyphenolic nature of both extracts contributes to the divergence of the behavior experienced in the biological activities tested, but none of the extracts showed a cytotoxic or phototoxic profile in the different tested cell lines. However, the cytoprotective values in front of the H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> oxidative stress induced in the 3T3 and HaCaT cell lines position these extracts as possible candidates for future health applications.</p>