Bioprospection of Italian flora: a strategy to valorize plant diversity through the search for precious phytochemicals

During their evolution, plants started to produce a vast array of biologically active compounds, called specialized metabolites, to face diverse environments, including their interaction with other organisms. The number of plant specialized metabolites has been estimated to range from 200,000 to 1,000,000 compounds, reflecting an extensive diversity in structures, functions, and bioactivities. However, these values are probably a great underestimation because there are approximately 350,000 plant species and only a few of them have been well investigated from a metabolic point of view. Therefore, there is a great and concrete possibility of discovering new metabolites potentially endowed with peculiar bioactivities.

In this context, the National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC) promotes the valorisation of Italian flora, not only by carrying out monitoring, preservation, and restoration of biodiversity but also through bioprospection, which consists of the exploration of plant diversity to discover new phytochemicals for social and commercial goals.

Bioprospection was initially performed by collecting 700 vascular and non-vascular plant species, representing all Italian plant families. Plants were harvested from botanical gardens and in open fields located in different geographical zones of Italy. In some cases, plants were directly bought from nurseries. The collection included 75% native vascular species and 25% alien vascular species. Among the former, 53 species were endemics, whereas the latter included 48 casual and 92 naturalized species (38 invasives).

The phytochemical investigations are currently underway and exploit an untargeted metabolomics approach based on the UPLC-HRMS technique. Only the species accumulating rare and interesting specialized metabolites will be subsequently evaluated to detect potential bioactivities towards non-communicable diseases, crop improvement, and plant protection. In this way, specific phytochemicals or phytocomplexes might be exploited in the future to produce new formulations able to prevent or treat human diseases or to ameliorate agricultural practices.