Phenolic compounds from Limonium densiflorum: a multifaceted approach to antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, and anti-influenza activities.

Exploration of the hydroethanolic extracts from the halophyte Limonium densiflorum, led to the isolation of seven phenolic compounds: gallic acid, epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), quercitrin, a mixture of myricetin 3-O-α-rhamnopyranoside + myricetin 3-O-L-arabinofuranoside, dihydrokaempferol, pinoresinol, and trans-N-ferulolyl tyramine. These compounds were assessed for anticancer, anti-influenza A virus, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties. The results indicated that these compounds do not exhibit toxicity towards healthy cells (WS-1 and MDCK). Furthermore, they displayed strong antioxidant properties. Among these compounds, gallic acid, the mixture of myricetin 3-O-α-rhamnopyranoside + myricetin 3-O-L-arabinofuranoside, dihydrokaempferol, and pinoresinol, showed significant cytotoxicity against colon cancer cells (IC50: 1-39 µg/mL). EGCG, gallic acid, dihydrokaempferol, pinoresinol, and trans-N-ferulolyl tyramine demonstrated potent anti-inflammatory activity by reducing nitric oxide (NO) production and also inhibited the replication of the influenza A virus. Biological activities varied based on compound structure, with phenolic acids and flavonoid aglycones showing stronger effects than glycosylated compounds and lignans.

Antioxidant activity profiling by spectrophotometric methods of aqueous methanolic extracts of Helichrysum stoechas subsp. rupestre and Phagnalon saxatile subsp. saxatile.

AIM: The aqueous methanolic extracts of two plants from Algeria, Helichrysum stoechas subsp. rupestre and Phagnalon saxatile subsp. saxatile, were investigated for their antioxidant activity. METHOD: Total phenolics, flavonoids, and tannins were determined by spectrophotometric techniques. In vitro antioxidant and radical scavenging profiling was determined by spectrophotometric methods, through: Total antioxidant capacity, and radical scavenging effects by the DPPH and ABTS methods, reducing and chelating power, and blanching inhibition of the ß-carotene. RESULTS: All of the extracts showed interesting antioxidant and radical scavenging activity. The highest contents in phenolics, tannins, and the highest total antioxidant capacity as gallic acid equivalents of 97.5 ± 0.33 mg GAE/g DW was obtained for the flowers of H. stoechas subsp. rupestre extract in the phosphomolybdenum assay. An extract of the leafy stems of P. saxatile subsp. saxatile revealed the highest content of flavonoids, and the highest antioxidant activity by the radical scavenging and ß-carotene assays when compared with standards. The best activity was by the scavenging radical DPPH with an IC50 value of 5.65 ± 0.10 µg·mL(-1). CONCLUSION: The studied medicinal plants could provide scientific evidence for some traditional uses in the treatment of diseases related to the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and oxidative stress.

LC-ESI-TOF-MS identification of bioactive secondary metabolites involved in the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anticancer activities of the edible halophyte Zygophyllum album Desf.

In this work, liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-TOF-MS) has been applied to screen bioactive metabolites in shoot extract of the medicinal halophyte Zygophyllum album. Among 10 compounds identified (saponins, flavonoids and sterols) five were reported for the first time in Z. album. Furthermore, novel biological activities of hexane, dichloromethane and methanolic extracts were assessed. Results showed that methanolic extract exhibit the highest antioxidant activity using in vitro ORAC test and anti-inflammatory activity, inhibiting by 84.8% NO release in RAW264.7 macrophages. However, dichloromethane extract proved the utmost antioxidant activity in cell (WS1) based-assay (IC50=57 µg/ml) and interesting anticancer capacity against human lung carcinoma (A-549) and colon adenocarcinoma (DLD-1) cells (IC50=37 and 48 µg/ml, respectively). These findings can be attributed to the presence of triterpenes, flavonoids and sterols in Z. album, which are widely known as powerful antioxidants and used in various industrial fields.