Bryophytes: Liverworts, Mosses, and Hornworts: Extraction and Isolation Procedures

There are more than 20,000 species of bryophytes in the world. Among them, almost of liverworts (Marchantiophyta) possess beautiful blue, yellow colored or colorless cellular oil bodies from which over several hundred new terpenoids, acetogenins, and aromatic compounds including flavonoids with more than 40 new carbon skeletons have been isolated. Some of the isolated compounds from liverworts show antimicrobial, antifungal, antiviral, allergenic contact dermatitis, cytotoxicity, insect antifeedant and mortality, antioxidant, nitric oxide (NO) production and plant growth inhibitory, neurotrophic and piscicidal activity, tublin polymerization inhibitory, muscle relaxing, and liver X-receptor (LXR)α agonist and (LXR)β antagonist activities, among others. The bio- and chemical diversity, chemical analysis of bryophytes including extraction, distillation, purification, TLC, GC and GC-MS, and HPLC analysis of oil bodies of liverworts are surveyed.