posted on 2020-03-06, 19:33authored byYoshinori Asakawa, Fumihiro Nagashima, Agnieszka Ludwiczuk
Plants of the Radula genus are chemically very
distinct from the other liverworts since they mainly elaborate bibenzyls
including bibenzyl cannabinoids and prenyl bibenzyl derivatives, as
well as bis-bibenzyls. Several
of these components show biological activities such as psychoactivity,
vasopressin antagonist, antimicrobial, antifungal, and NO production
inhibitory activity, and cytotoxic activity against human cancer cell
lines. While distribution of terpenoids in Radula species is in general very limited, some Portuguese species are
rich sources of sesquiterpenoids. Among 679 liverwort species so far
examined chemically, 264 species contained α-tocopherol, which
may play an important antioxidative role for the constituents of oil
bodies of liverworts.