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Besides being a common weed, the presence of Echium plantagineum L. in food and feed commodities can represent a safety hazard due to their content in pyrrolizidine alkaloids. In this study, the complete chloroplast of E. plantagineum isolate BPTPS251 is described, being the first available plastome from an isolate belonging to the Echium genus. The chloroplast genome is 149,776 bp in length with 37.5% GC content, displaying a quadripartite structure that contains a pair of inverted repeats regions (25,754 bp each), separated by a large single-copy (80,978 bp) and a small single-copy (17,290 bp) regions. A total of 131 genes were predicted, including 37 tRNA genes, 8 rRNA genes, and 86 protein-coding genes. The phylogenetic analysis confirmed the placement of E. plantagineum under the Boraginaceae family, belonging to the Boraginales order. This study will contribute to conservation, phylogenetic, and evolutionary studies, as well as DNA barcoding applications for food and feed safety purposes., Competing Interests: No potential competing or conflict of interests was reported by the authors., (© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.)

The omega-3 (n-3) polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic (DHA) acid are well known to protect against numerous metabolic disorders. In view of the alarming increase in the incidence of chronic diseases, consumer interest and demand are rapidly increasing for natural dietary sources of n-3 PUFAs. Among the plant sources, seed oils from chia ( Salvia hispanica ), flax ( Linum usitatissimum ), and garden cress ( Lepidium sativum ) are now widely considered to increase α-linolenic acid (ALA) in the diet. Moreover, seed oil of Echium plantagineum , Buglossoides arvensis , and Ribes sp. are widely explored as a source of stearidonic acid (SDA), a more effective source than is ALA for increasing the EPA and DHA status in the body. Further, the oil from microalgae and thraustochytrids can also directly supply EPA and DHA. Thus, these microbial sources are currently used for the commercial production of vegan EPA and DHA. Considering the nutritional and commercial importance of n-3 PUFAs, this review critically discusses the nutritional aspects of commercially exploited sources of n-3 PUFAs from plants, microalgae, macroalgae, and thraustochytrids. Moreover, we discuss issues related to oxidative stability and bioavailability of n-3 PUFAs and future prospects in these areas.

Echium seed oil is an alternative source of omega 3 fatty acids but it is highly susceptible to oxidation. A combination of three natural strategies was proposed in this study aiming to improve the oxidative stability of echium oil obtained by pressing (PO) or solvent extraction (PSO), kept in the storage condition for 180 days or during the consumption for 30 days. Our results showed that the reduction of temperature was sufficient to keep the oil stable during storage for both samples. During the consumption time, the best stability was achieved by adding a mixture of antioxidants, composed of sinapic (500 ppm), ascorbic (250 ppm), and citric (150 ppm) acids, and/or 20% of high oleic sunflower oil. The combined strategies promoted a 34 to 80% reduction of peroxide value and 0 to 85% reduction of malondialdehyde concentrations in the samples, showing to be a feasible and natural alternative to improve the oxidative stability of echium oil. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: Our study successfully applied an optimized combination of simple and low-cost strategies to enhance the chemical stability of echium seed oil. As the use of echium oil expands around the world, the oil industry and final consumers may benefit from our results to increase the oil shelf-life., (© 2021 Institute of Food Technologists®.)

Isohexenylnaphthazarins are commonly found in the root periderm of several Boraginaceous plants and are known for their broad range of biological activities. The work described herein concerns the biological activity of compounds from the roots of Echium plantagineum L. and Echium gaditanum Boiss (Boraginaceae) collected from field sites in southern Spain and Australia. Bioactivity was assessed using etiolated wheat coleoptile bioassay and in vitro growth inhibitory activity in HeLa and IGROV-1 cells. The quantification of four isohexenylnaphthazarins (shikonin/alkannin, deoxyshikonin/deoxyalkannin, acetylshikonin/acetylalkannin and dimethylacrylshikonin/dimethylacrylalkannin) was performed by LC-MS/MS using juglone as internal standard. Correlation coefficient values for the activities and concentrations of these four analytes were in the linear range and were greater than 0.99. Acetylshikonin/acetylalkannin and dimethylacrylshikonin/dimethylacrylalkannin were present in the highest concentrations in extracts of both species. The results reveal that greatest overall inhibition was observed in both bioassays with E. gaditanum extracts. Strong correlations between time of collection, sampling location and bioactivity were identified., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Neutral-lipids within oilseeds are most commonly stored in oil bodies, small spherical organelles with oleosin proteins inserted through a phospholipid monolayer. Oil bodies extracted from Echium plantagineum are highly enriched in polyunsaturated fatty acids and are stable to coalescence and oxidation. This stability has been attributed to the strong association between the phospholipid monolayer and oleosin proteins. To better understand this association the phospholipid fatty acyl groups of E. Plantagineum oil bodies were determined for the first time; a large proportion (≈70%) of saturated fatty acids were present, and this may aid in oleosin anchorage and thus contributes to oil body stability. The effect of oil body washing on surface charge was also observed (using turbidity, zeta and streaming potentials), and dependent on the washing protocol, E. Plantagineum oil bodies had an isoelectric point of pH 4-5. This is significantly different to pI values for oil bodies from a range of other seeds reported in the literature using isoelectric focusing; a possible explanation for this discrepancy is discussed., (Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier B.V.)