Ceratonia

Abstract: The flowers of Ceratonia siliqua, an anomalous caesalpinioid legume in the tribe Cassieae, are unusual in being unisexual and in lacking petals. Inflorescence development, organogeny, and flower development are described for this species. All flowers are originally bisexual, but one sex is suppressed during late development of functionally male and female flowers. Ceratonia siliqua is highly plastic in sexuality of individuals, inflorescence branching pattern, racemose or cymose inflorescences, bracteole presence, terminal flower presence, organ number per whorl, missing floral organs, pollen grain form, and carpel cleft orientation. Order of initiation is: five sepals in helical order, then five stamens in helical order together with the carpel. Each stamen is initiated as two altemisepalous primordia that fuse to become a continuous antesepalous ridge; in some flowers, the last one or two stamens of the five may form as individual antesepalous mounds. Petal rudiments are occasional in mature flowers. Position of organs is atypical: the median sepal is on the adaxial side in Ceratonia, rather than abaxial as in most other caesalpinioids. This feature in Ceratonia may be viewed as a link to subfamily Mimosoideae, in which this character state is constant.

Abstract: The present study aims at the quantification of phenolic compounds of Tunisian carob (Ceratonia siliqua L.) pods and the study of their in vitro and in vivo antioxidant activities in different extraction solvents. In this respect, we used 50 rats divided into five groups: Control and Carob-treated groups (100, 200, 600 and 1000 mg/kg, b.w.). Our results showed that the carob polar extracts are richer in total polyphenols, total flavonoids and condensed tannins than the nonpolar extracts with quantitative variation of phenolic compounds between seeds and pulp. In vitro, the determination of antioxidant capacity by 2,2'-azino-bis[3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid] (ABTS) method showed that carob extracts present high antioxidant potency in a solvent-compartment-dependent way compared to Trolox, an antioxidant reference molecule. In vivo, the subacute treatment within 7 days with aqueous extract of carob pods (AECP) decreased significantly and doses dependently the cerebral and myocardial lipid peroxidation as well as the level of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in kidney, liver and brain but not in heart. These data suggest that carob fruit presents an in vitro an in vivo antioxidant effects and might be proposed as a food additive to protect against oxidative stress damage. Key words: Carob, phenolic compounds, antioxidant properties, rat.

Abstract: In the first days of germination of carob seeds (Ceratonia siliqua L., Leguminosae) (until penetration of the seed coat by the radicle) oligosaccharides of the raffinose series present in the endosperm and embryo are hydrolysed. The mobilisation of the reserve galactomannan of the endosperm begins after the emergence of the radicle. Its degradation is effected by hydrolytic enzymes (α-galactosidase [EC 3.2.1.22], β-mannanase, [EC 3.2.1.25] and β-mannosidase [EC 3.2.1.25]) and the breakdown products-galactose and mannose-are continuously metabolised by the embryo. At the same time starch synthesis is observed in the embryo.In the germination of Ceratonia siliqua seeds the embryo does not have a direct effect on the mobilisation of the reserve polysaccharide as it does in the case of barley. The endosperm consists of living cells which, independently of the embryo, synthesise the enzymes used for galactomannan breakdown. A weak α-galactosidase activity is already present in the endosperm of mature dry seeds. This activity cannot be suppressed by inhibitors of transcription or translation, so that their presence does not prevent degradation of oligosaccharides of the raffinose series.A high proportion of the α-galactosidase responsible for the breakdown of the galactomannan is synthesised de novo during germination. Such synthesis could be demonstrated by the incorporation of [U-(14)C]serine and could be inhibited by actinomycin D or cycloheximide.