Chemical Profiling, Antioxidant and Lipoxygenase Enzyme Inhibition Activities of Wild Edible Truffle (Terfezia boudieri) from Northern Borders of Saudi Arabia

Truffles are natural food product very famous for its health benefits for being significant biosource of essential fatty acids, proteins and other antioxidant and phenolic compounds. The current study was conducted to evaluate the phytochemicals, antioxidant and lipoxygenase inhibition activities of Terfezia boudieri of Saudi origin. Various phytochemicals were screened applying standard procedures. The total methanol extract (TME) of the truffle was subjected to several chromatographic procedures. The antioxidant activity was evaluated by DPPH antioxidant procedure, comparing results with trolox as standard. Results demonstrated that Terfezia boudieri chemically characterized by the availability of various constituents such as flavonoids, steroids, saponins, tannins and carbohydrates at different levels. Phytochemical investigation led to the isolation of β-sitosterol and gallic acid that were identified using 1H, ¹³C, DEPT, COSY, HMQC and HMBC NMR spectroscopic data. Results demonstrated high antioxidant activity with IC₅₀: 50.4 μg/ml and 31.4 μg/ml for TME and gallic acid, respectively. TME and gallic acid exhibited lipoxygenase inhibitory activity with IC₅₀ values 4.59 and 0.53 μg/ml for TME and gallic acid, respectively. The higher lipoxygenase inhibitory activity was presumably correlated to the high antioxidant activity. In conclusion, current investigation confirms the folklore use of Terfezia boudieri as antinflammatory food. Hence, the studied Terfezia boudieri may have a great potential as antioxidant and antinflammatory functional food and nutraceuticals products for pharmaceutical applications.