title: Carotenoid and tocopherol composition of leaves, buds, and flowers of Capparis spinosa grown wild in Tunisia.
abstract: High-performance liquid chromatography was used to determine carotenoids (beta-carotene, lutein, neoxanthin, and violaxanthin) and tocopherols of leaves, buds, and flowers of Tunisian Capparis spinosa. This plant shows strong resistance to hard environmental conditions, and it is one of the most commonly found aromatics in the Mediterranean kitchen. In this study, the means of the total carotenoids were 3452.5 +/- 1639.4, 1002 +/- 518.5, and 342.7 +/- 187.9 microg/g fresh weight (FW) in leaves, buds, and flowers, respectively. Lutein accounts for the high content. Violaxanthin provided the lowest portion of the total carotenoids. The principal form of tocopherol detected in leaves was alpha-tocopherol (20.19 +/- 10 mg/100 g FW). In buds and flowers, there were both alpha- (49.12 +/- 17.48 and 28.68 +/- 9.13 mg/100 g FW, respectively) and gamma-tocopherol (48.13 +/- 15.08 and 27.8 +/- 16.01 mg/100 g FW, respectively). The combined content of pro-vitamin A and vitamin E in capers encourages researchers to more explore and find developments for this plant.
authors.affiliation: Département de Biologie, Faculté des Sciences de Tunis, Laboratoire de Biochimie, Université Tunis El-Manar, Tunis, Tunisia. Nizar.Tlili@fst.rnu.tn
authors.forename: Nizar
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tlili
authors.forename: Nizar
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nasri
authors.forename: Ezzeddine
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Saadaoui
authors.forename: Abdelhamid
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Khaldi
authors.forename: Saida
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Triki
mesh_terms: D031484:Capparis / Q000737:chemistry*; D002338:Carotenoids / Q000737:chemistry*; D035264:Flowers / Q000737:chemistry; D014975:Lutein / Q000032:analysis; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000737:chemistry; D018520:Plant Shoots / Q000737:chemistry; D024505:Tocopherols / Q000737:chemistry*; D014416:Tunisia
chemical_list: D002338:Carotenoids; D024505:Tocopherols; D014975:Lutein