Phytochemical Profile of Wollemia nobilis Half-Matured Female Cones and Their Potential Ethnopharmacological and Nutraceutical Activities

Abstract

In this work, the half-matured female cones of the rare species, Wollemia nobilis, were studied for their phytochemical profile for the first time. Fourteen compounds were isolated and identified by means of column chromatography, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and Mass Spectrometry (MS). In particular, these compounds were acetyl-isocupressic acid (1), methyl-(E)-communate (2), sandaracopimaric acid (3), wollemol (4), 7''-O-methyl-agathisflavone (5), 7,4'''-di-O-methyl-agathisflavone (6), shikimic acid (7), quinic acid (8), glucose (9), sucrose (10), raffinose (11), D-lactic acid (12), succinic acid (13) and alanine (14). The chemotaxonomic implications of their presence were discussed and a preliminary phytochemical comparison between these cones and the male ones was also performed. This evidenced several similarities but also some differences that were widely treated about. Moreover, a preliminary nutraceutical evaluation of these cones, based on phytochemistry, was carried out. Actually, this showed a good nutraceutical potentiality of the half-matured cones but also some potential critical state mainly due to the occurrence of acetyl-isocupressic acid (1), which is quite known to have some adverse pharmacological effects. For this reason, more in-depth nutraceutical studies would be necessary to exactly determine the ethnopharmacological and nutraceutical value of these cones.