Romanian Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences
 

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METAL HEALTH RISKS ASSESSMENT AND CRUDE POLYSACCHARIDE CHARACTERIZATION IN THREE RUSSULA SPECIES

DANIELA ELENA ZAVASTIN 1, ANCA MIRON 1, ADRIAN FLORIN ȘPAC 1*, GABRIELA BILIUȚĂ 2, ANA-MARIA MACSIM 2, IULIANA GABRIELA BREABĂN 3, GIANINA DODI 1,4, GABRIELA LISA 4, SIMONA PETRONELA GHERMAN ¹

¹ “Grigore T. Popa” University of Medicine and Pharmacy Iasi, 16 Universității Street, 700115, Iași, Romania
2 “Petru Poni” Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, 41A Grigore Ghica Vodă Street, 700487, Iași, Romania
3 “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University, Faculty of Geography and Geology, 20A Carol I Boulevard, 700505, Iași, Romania
4 “Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University, “Cristofor Simionescu” Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Environmental
Protection, 73 Prof. Dimitrie Mangeron Boulevard., 700050, Iași, Romania

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Known in recent years as “vegetable meat” edible mushrooms offer numerous health benefits. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate possible benefits and risks in three edible mushrooms collected from Romania: Russula cyanoxantha (Schaeff.) Fr. (RC), Russula mustelina Fr. (RM) and Russula xerampelina (Schaeff.) Fr. (RX) Metal content determination showed that through ingestion of analysed mushrooms, no possible non-carcinogenic risks of metal poisoning can occur to adults (for all mushrooms HI ˂ 10), and also that they are a great source of micro- and macroelements. The crude polysaccharide physico- chemical characterization was performed using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), Infrared Spectroscopy, Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) and Thermogravimetric Analysis (TG). The by-products from the crude polysaccharide isolation process were evaluated for antioxidant and α-glucosidase inhibitory activities. The RC hydromethanolic extract showed good 2,2'- azinobis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) diammonium salt (ABTS) free radical scavenging activity (EC50 = 97.37 ± 0.55 μg/mL) while the RM ethanolic extract presented good ferrous ion chelating activity (EC50 = 46.1 ± 0.2 μg/mL). All ethanolic extracts inhibited α-glucosidase, with the RC extract showing the strongest inhibitory activity (EC50 = 0.121 ± 0.001 μg/mL).