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Cystic echinococcosis (CE) remains an important challenge both in humans and animals. There is no safe and suitable remedy for CE, so the discovery of new compounds with promising scolicidal effects, particularly from herbal sources, is of great importance for therapeutic uses in the treatment and prevention of CE reappearance. Sesquiterpenes are C15 organic compounds made up of three isoprene units and mostly occurring as fragrant components of essential oils. They are of economic importance for the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industry, and recently attracted the attention of the scientific community for their remarkable parasiticidal properties. In the present study, we have focused on three known sesquiterpenes, isofuranodiene (IFD), α-bisabolol (BSB), and farnesol (FOH), as important phytoconstituents of the essential oils of wild celery (Smyrnium olusatrum), chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla), and acacia farnese (Vachellia farnesiana), respectively. Protoscoleces were recovered from fertile hydatid cysts and were exposed to different concentrations of the three tested compounds for different exposure times. The viability of protoscoleces was confirmed by 0.1% eosin staining. Results of scolicidal activity evaluations showed that IFD possessed the best effect against Echinococcus granulosus protoscoleces (LC50 and LC90 values of 8.87 and 25.48 µg/mL, respectively), followed by BSB (LC50 of 103.2 µg/mL) and FOH (LC50 of 113.68 µg/mL). The overall toxicity of IFD differed significantly from those of FOH and BSB, while there was no significant difference in toxicity between the latter compounds (p > 0.05). The present study showed that IFD seems to be a promising scolicidal agent and can be further tested to become a candidate for CE treatment.

Supercritical CO2 (S-CO2) extraction is one of the most employed techniques for the extraction of bioactive compounds for its safety, effectiveness, cost-efficiency, and good environmental compliance. Smyrnium olusatrum L. (Apiaceae) is an aromatic plant of great interest due to its potential applications in pharmaceutical, agrochemical, and oleochemical fields. Its bioactivity is caused by furanosesquiterpenes, mainly represented by isofuranodiene (IFD). The extraction of this compound is usually achieved through Soxhlet or hydrodistillation. However, the latter usually leads to the thermal Cope rearrangement of IFD into its isomer curzerene, resulting in low recovery. This study reported for the first time the optimization of S-CO2 extraction of IFD from S. olusatrum schizocarps. Pressure (MPa), extraction time (min), and static mode (%) were varied while the temperature was maintained at 45 °C to avoid IFD thermal degradation. The optimized process (50 MPa, 60 min, 25% static mode) provided an extraction yield and an IFD recovery of 8.50 and 0.94% and avoided the thermal degradation of the compound. This study demonstrated that S-CO2 extraction is a valuable alternative to conventional hydrodistillation (extraction yield and IFD recovery of 2.64 and 0.77%) and Soxhlet (extraction yield and IFD recovery of 9.49 and 0.85%) to recover IFD from S. olusatrum.

The myrrh-like furanosesquiterpene isofuranodiene (IFD) is the main constituent of wild celery (Smyrnium olusatrum L., Apiaceae), an overlooked vegetable that was cultivated during the Roman Empire. In the present study, we investigated the protective effects of IFD pre-treatment against oxidative stress and inflammatory response in an animal model of ischemic stroke. IFD was isolated by the crystallization of Smyrnium olusatrum essential oil, and its structure and purity were confirmed by NMR and HPLC analyses. Acute pre-treatment of IFD (10 mg/kg i.p.) significantly reduced the levels of the inflammatory cytokines IL-1β and TNF-α, the expression of pNF-κB/NF-κB, and the lipid peroxidation indicator MDA. Finally, IFD boosted a faster recovery and better scores in grid-walking and modified neurological severity scores (mNSS) tests. Taken together, these findings indicate IFD as a promising lead compound for the discovery of new treatments of brain ischemia.