Polycommunin A, a dihydrocinnamoyl bibenzyl isolated from the moss Polýtrichum commúne, and its antioxidant activity

Abstract

A novel polyphenolic compound named Polycommunin A (1) was discovered in the aerial part of the common haircap moss (Polýtrichum commune) widely spread in boreal and temperate climate zones. Aqueous ethanol and extraction of the plant material with further isolation of polyphenolic fraction and preparative HPLC separation allowed obtaining individual compound and identifying it as dimeric dihydrocinnamoyl bibenzyl by NMR spectroscopy and high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry. Polycommunin A demonstrated high in vitro antioxidant activity determined by FRAP and PCL assays and comparable to that of Trolox and Quercetin.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Bryophytes
• moss
• Polytrichum сommune
• secondary metabolites
• polyphenols
• antioxidant activity

Acknowledgment

This work was performed using the instrumentation of the Core Facility Center “Arktika” of the Northern (Arctic) Federal University.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Data availability statement

The data presented in this study are available in the article and Supplementary Material.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation under Grant 23-73-01078.