A series of chemical and biochemical parameters of edible hemp resources (seeds, oil, and flour) from the monoecious EU registered hemp genotype Fedora, was determined, including fatty acid profile, phytosterol composition, total phenolics, antioxidant activity, macro- and micro-elements. The fatty acid ω-3/ω-6 approached the nutritionally optimal 3/1 ratio. β-sitosterol and other phytosterols sterols dominated the unsaponifiable fraction. Hemp seeds, flour, and oil contained 767 ± 41, 744 ± 29, and 21 ± 5 mg GAE kg⁻¹ total polyphenols, respectively. The antioxidant potential of Fedora flour and seeds, evaluated through the DPPH (2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) assay, was higher than that of oil. K and Mg were the most abundant macro-elements, particularly in flour, while the concentration of trace elements was Fe > Cu > Ni > Mn. The presence of an array of bioactive compound candidate Fedora products as health-promoting food matrices. The ATR-FTIR spectra of hemp-derived products indicated the proximate composition of macro-nutrients.

In this work, we characterized conjugated linolenic acids (e.g., punicic acid) as the major components of the hydrophilic fraction (80% aqueous methanol extract) from pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) seed oil (PSO) and evaluated their anti-inflammatory potential on some human colon (HT29 and HCT116), liver (HepG2 and Huh7), breast (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231) and prostate (DU145) cancer lines. Our results demonstrated that punicic acid and its congeners induce a significant decrease of cell viability for two breast cell lines with a related increase of the cell cycle G₀/G₁ phase respect to untreated cells. Moreover, the evaluation of a great panel of cytokines expressed by MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells showed that the levels of VEGF and nine pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-2, IL-6, IL-12, IL-17, IP-10, MIP-1α, MIP-1β, MCP-1 and TNF-α) decreased in a dose dependent way with increasing amounts of the hydrophilic extracts of PSO, supporting the evidence of an anti-inflammatory effect. Taken together, the data herein suggest a potential synergistic cytotoxic, anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant role of the polar compounds from PSO.

In this study, a hydroalcoholic chestnut shell extract was characterized and tested on six different human cell lines. Gallic, ellagic, and syringic acids were the most abundant non-condensed compounds in the chestnut extract, as determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Tannins were mainly represented by condensed monomeric units of epigallocatechin and catechin/epicatechin. After 48 h of treatment, only the human hepatoblastoma HepG2 cells reached an inhibition corresponding to IC₅₀ with an increase of apoptosis and mitochondrial depolarization. The cytokinome evaluation before and after treatment revealed that the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and the tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α decreased after the treatment, suggesting a potential anti-angiogenic and anti-inflammatory effect of this extract. Moreover, the metabolome evaluation by ¹H-NMR evidenced that the polyphenols extracted from chestnut shell (PECS) treatment affected the levels of some amino acids and other metabolites. Overall, these data highlight the effects of biomolecules on cell proliferation, apoptosis, cell cycle and mitochondrial depolarization, and on cytokinomics and metabolomics profiles.