CHEMICAL PROFILING AND STRUCTURE ELUCIDATION OF BIOACTIVE CONSTITUENTS FROM THE METHANOLIC EXTRACT OF PHILONOTIS MOLLIS
Bryophytes are progressively considered to have potential for future applications in natural bioactive compoundswith varied pharmacological effects. The chemical composition of the moss Philonotis mollis was determinedbyGC-MS profiling a methanolic extract of the moss. The number of volatile compounds that were identifiedwassixteen, including major phenolic and aromatic compounds vanillin (16.99), 2-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzaldehyde(9.13), and m-guaiacol (1.03), as well as such fatty acids as n-hexadecanoic acid (13.86), oleic acid (10.94), andoctadecanoic acid (6.30). Pregna-5,16-dien-20-one, 3-hydroxy-, and cholesta-4,6-dien-3-ol were also found to showa range of lipophilic metabolites. The antioxidant and antimicrobial ones included quercetin, rutin, gallic acid, andanew flavonoid 2(3, 4-dihydroxyphenyl)-3,5,7-trihydroxy -4H -chromen-4-one. These discoveries make P. mollis animportant source of bioactive molecules that can substitute synthetic additives whose toxicity has already beenproven to be harmful to humans and the environment. It is part of the growing body of research on bryophyte natural product chemistry, and it tackles the pressing problem of finding alternatives to synthetic compounds inpharmaceuticals, food preservation, and cosmetics, which have to be sustainable and based on plants. The studyoffers a baseline on which subsequent bioassay-directed research efforts should be developed in the future andhasthe potential to stimulate wider screening of bryophyte biodiversity and discover novel biological leads behindtherapeutic value. In the end, this study contributes to the change toward green chemistry and sustainabledevelopment of drugs and the pharmacological potential of the non-vascular plants that remains unexploited.
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