In this review article, the phytochemistry of the species belonging to the Araucariaceae family is explored. Among these, in particular, it is given a wide overview on the phytochemical profile of Wollemia genus, for the first time. In addition to this, the ethnopharmacology and the general biological activities associated to the Araucariaceae species are singularly described. Lastly, the chemotaxonomy at the genus and family levels is described and detailed.

In this work, the phytochemical analysis of Teucrium chamaedrys L. collected in Italy was reported. Eight compounds were isolated and identified by means of classical column chromatography and spectroscopic techniques, such as NMR and MS. In detail, these compounds were: verbascoside (1), forsythoside b (2), samioside (3), alyssonoside (4), harpagide (5), 8-O-acetyl-harpagide (6), cirsiliol (7) and β-arbutin (8). The presence of these compounds, in particular iridoids and phenyl-ethanoid glycosides, has a chemotaxonomic relevance and results to be in perfect accordance with the current botanical classification of the species. In addition, it provides a phytochemical rationale for the use of this particular plant in the ethno-pharmacological field. Conversely, it is worth of mention the absence of potentially toxic components, unlike to what observed in other species of the genus which can no longer be used for ethno-medicinal purposes.

In this work, we report the study on the composition in primary and secondary metabolites of the polar and less-polar fractions obtained from the fruiting bodies of Suillus bellinii (Inzenga) Kuntze collected from Central Italy. Thirteen compounds were identified through a series of classical chromatographic methods and through spectroscopic techniques (nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mass spectrometry (MS)), namely suillin (1), ergosterol (2), glutamic acid (3), isoleucine (4), leucine (5), threonine (6), tyrosine (7), valine (8), D-mannitol (9), sucrose (10), D-sorbitol (11), fumaric acid (12) and alanine (13). These results allowed us to make specific considerations about the possible applications of this mushroom, which vary from medicine, due to the high cytotoxic and antitumor properties of suillin (1), to nutritional values, due to the presence of essential nutrients as amino acids and pre-vitamin D₂ (ergosterol), together with low-calories sweeteners, confirming the close association between the identified components and the health-promoting properties of this species.