HPLC/UV profile and determination of total phenolic and flavonoid contents of lichen Umbilicaria crustulosa growing in Serbia

The lichens synthesize a large number of secondary metabolites and most of these compounds are unique to lichen. The present study provides data concerning the chemical characterization and determination of total phenolic and flavonoid contents of lichen extracts of Umbilicaria crustulosa. Chemical profiling of the extracts was done by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with a UV detector (HPLC/UV), while the determination of total phenolic and flavonoid contents was done by the spectrophotometric method. HPLC analysis of the acetone and methanol extracts of U. crustulosa lichen revealed the presence of the methyl-orselinate, lecanoric acid, crustinic acid, haematommic acid, gyrophoric acid, methyl lecanorate, physodic acid, atranorin and chloroatranorin as the main compounds. The most abundant compounds of the acetone and methanol extracts were the tri-depside gyrophoric acid (59.27 % and 58.32 %) and didepside lecanoric acid (7.41 % and 11.43 %). The results of the total phenolic content (TPC) and total flavonoid content (TFC) show that the acetone extract had higher values of TPC (205.46 mg GA/g) and TFC (290.18 mg RE/g; 160.50 mg QE/g). The investigated extracts of the lichen U. crustulosa can be used as a significant source of biologically active compounds.