## 4 Discussion
For instance, polar and medium-polar solvents such as water, methanol, ethanol, propanol, acetone, and their aqueous mixtures are commonly used for extraction [17]. Polyphenols, terpenoids, and alkaloids are the most prominent secondary metabolites widely present in plants, and their distribution can be observed throughout the whole metabolic process [18]. Remarkably, several reports have shown protective effects of various BCs, from plant matrices, used as prevention against several chronic and degenerative diseases, including neurodegeneration such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes, and cancer [19; 20]. In the present study, the _R. angustifolius_ extracts were extracted through different extraction methods, i.e., HAE, MAC, SOX, and infusion, using different solvents, i.e., EA, MetOH, EtOH, and H\({}_{2}\)O. These extracts were analyzed for their bioactive compounds profile using UHPLC-QTOF-MS. Overall, the metabolites profile of _R. angustifolius_ extracts has been found to contain reasonable amounts of BCs, characterized by polyphenols, terpenoids, and alkaloids. Indeed, phenolic compounds and terpenoids were the most representative classes extracted in high quantity by HAE coupled with methanol (Figure 2 and Table S5), recovering 172.57 and 65.85 mg eq./g DM, respectively. Other studies have confirmed that methanolic extracts display higher polyphenol and terpenoid contents than other solvents such as distilled water, ethanol, ethyl acetate, acetone, dichloromethane, and hexane [21]. However, alkaloids were reported as more soluble in an ethanolic solvent using the maceration technique. Probably, the timing employed to soak in ethanol leads to a remarkable recovery of alkaloids. [PERSON] and co-worker [22] confirmed that isolation of alkaloids needs a highly labor-intensive and time-consuming process, based on Soxhet or lengthy maceration extraction. Besides methanolic extracts using the HAE technique of extraction, the most abundant phenolic classes were LMWPs and flavones, reporting 80.32 and 30.51 mg eq./g DM, respectively. In contrast, lignans were found to be more soluble in EA by maceration (49.68 mg eq./g DM). It is well known that flavonoids and LMWPs are polar compounds, so lower flavonoid contents in the ethanol and ethyl acetate extracts could be expected as they have relatively lower polarity than methanol [23]. These results are in line with the findings of previous studies, which reported that extraction solvents significantly affect the recovery yields of BCs from plant materials [24]. Regarding lignans, [PERSON] et al. [25] reported their solubility in ethyl acetate, extracting two important lignans with relevant biological activity--i.e., seciosolaricinesiol and anhydro-seciosolaricinesiol with a purity of 97% and 98%, respectively. Accordingly, in our ethyl acetate extracts, there was anhydro-seciosolaricinesiol and other important lignans, i.e., pinoresinol, dimethylmatiinesiol, 7-hydroxymatiinesiol, 7-oxomanatizesinol, and isolaricinesiol. Interestingly, a wide range of studies reported the estrogenic activity of these lignans through the metabolic activity of intestinal bacteria, producing mammalian lignans such as enterodi and enterolactone and regulating estrogen receptors in breast tissue [25; 26; 27]. The in vitro antioxidant activity of BCs is associated with their capacity to inhibit lipoxygenase, chelate metals, and capture free radicals, even though they can also act as promoters of in vitro oxidation reactions. Accordingly, phenolic compounds act as antioxidants by preventing or delaying auto-oxidation and free radicals' sequestration, producing more stable compounds that cannot undertake subsequent oxidations, which enables them to protect low-density lipoproteins of the human body from oxidation. Antioxidant activity of food matrices, such as vegetables, fruits, and plants in general, have demonstrated multiple beneficial effects in the control of diseases linked to oxidative stress [28].