Phenolic Compound, Antioxidant, Antibacterial, and In Silico Studies of Extracts from the Aerial Parts of Lactuca saligna L.

Medicinal plants are considered a major source for discovering novel effective drugs. To our knowledge, no studies have reported the chemical composition and biological activities of Moroccan Lactuca saligna extracts. In this context, this study aims to characterize the polyphenolic compounds distributed in hydro-methanolic extracts of L. saligna and evaluate their antioxidant and antibacterial activities; in addition, in silico analysis based on molecular docking and ADMET was performed to predict the antibacterial activity of the identified phenolic compounds. Our results showed the identification of 29 among 30 detected phenolic compounds with an abundance of dicaffeoyltartaric acid, luteolin 7-glucoronide, 3,5-di-O-caffeoylquinic acid, and 5-caffeoylquinic acid with 472.77, 224.30, 196.79, and 171.74 mg/kg of dried extract, respectively. Additionally, antioxidant activity assessed by DPPH scavenging activity, ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay, and ferrous ion-chelating (FIC) assay showed interesting antioxidant activity. Moreover, the results showed remarkable antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhimurium, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus aureus, and Listeria monocytogenes with minimum inhibitory concentrations between 1.30 ± 0.31 and 10.41 ± 0.23 mg/mL. Furthermore, in silico analysis identified three compounds, including Apigenin 7-O-glucuronide, Quercetin-3-O-glucuronide, and 3-p-Coumaroylquinic acid as potent candidates for developing new antibacterial agents with acceptable pharmacokinetic properties. Hence, L. saligna can be considered a source of phytochemical compounds with remarkable activities, while further in vitro and in vivo studies are required to explore the main biological activities of this plant.

Inheritance of dwarfism and narrow lobed-leaf in two rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) mutant lines.

There is a need for dwarf and narrow lobed-leaves rapeseed cultivars to reduce transpiration under drought prone areas. A dwarf mutant line 'H2M-1' and a mutant with reduced lobed-leaf 'H2M-2' were developed. To exploit these mutated traits properly in an effective breeding program, one should understand their mode of inheritance. There are conflicting findings for plant dwarfism and limited studies for leaf size in mutant genetic backgrounds. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the inheritance of dwarfism and narrow lobed-leaf mutated traits. Plants of the wild-type variety 'INRA-CZH2' were reciprocally crossed with plants of the line 'H2M-1' and plants of the line 'H2M-2'. A genetic study was conducted by analyzing segregation of mutated traits in F1, F2 and BC1F1 generations. The results revealed that two recessive genes with dominant epistasis action controlled the heredity of plant height in the dwarf line, whereas only a single recessive gene is involved in determining reduced lobed-leaf in the line H2M-2. Thus, there is a possibility to easily and quickly transfer these characters into rapeseed breeding germplasm or varieties towards the development of suitable cultivars for areas marked by increasing drought stress.