Phytochemical and Biological Investigation of Spergularia marina (L.) Griseb. Growing in Egypt

A phytochemical investigation of Spergularia marina (L.) Griseb. growing in Egypt, has been carried out, which resulted in the isolation of seven compounds from the different extracts of the plant namely; ${\beta}$-sitosterol glucoside, tricin (1) dihydroferulic acid (2), vanillic acid (3), 4-hydroxybenzoic acid (4), uracil (5) and 8-hydroxy cuminoic acid (6) Structure elucidation of the isolated compounds was carried out using different spectroscopic techniques. This is the first report for the isolation of these compounds from genus Spergularia. Furthermore, 8-Hydroxy cuminoic acid and uracil were isolated for the first time from family Caryophyllaceae. The chemical composition of the volatile components present in the petroleum ether extract of Spergularia marina (L.) Griseb. using combined gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) is reported here for the first time. Of the 97 components present, 59 were identified including three sulfur containing compounds which represented about 1.8% of the volatiles of the total petroleum ether extract. This prompted us to study and report its possible antimicrobial activity. In addition, the antibacterial and antifungal screening of different extracts of Spergularia marina (L.) Griseb. as well as some isolates have been performed using agar diffusion method.