Echinops spinosissimus Turra Root Methanolic Extract: Characterization of the Bioactive Components and Relative Wound Healing, Antimicrobial and Antioxidant Properties.

Echinops spinosissimus Turra subsp. bovei (Asteraceae) is a medicinal plant in western Algeria. Traditionally, roots and inflorescences are employed as hypertensive agents and in the treatment of hemorrhoids. The current study evaluates the chemical composition, antioxidant, antimicrobial, and wound-healing properties of the root methanolic extract from E. spinosissimus subsp. bovei. The content of total phenolics, flavonoids, and tannins was determined. In addition, the phenolic profile was typified. The studied plant extract resulted in being primarily composed of Apigenin, Kaempferol, and their derivatives. The total phenolic content was equal to 95.31 ± 2.90 mg GAE/g DW, while the number of flavonoids and condensed tannins was 16.01 ± 0.16 mg CE/g DW and 8.30 ± 0.65 mg CE/g DW, respectively. The methanolic extract was found to exhibit antioxidant activity towards the DPPH radical, with an IC50 of 7.99 ± 0.28 mg/mL and a TAC of 30.30 ± 0.54 mg AAE/g DW, as well as an antibacterial effect, especially against P. aeruginosa. No significant wound-healing property was observed, even though the histopathological observations showed enhanced wound-healing quality. According to our evidence, E. spinosissimus could represent a source of phytochemicals with potential beneficial effects for human health in terms of antioxidant and antibiotic properties, although further investigations on this species are needed.

Identification of Phenolic Compounds from Nettle as New Candidate Inhibitors of Main Enzymes Responsible on Type-II Diabetes.

BACKGROUND: In medicinal chemistry, the discovery of small organic molecules that can be optimized and lead to a future drug capable of effectively modulating the biological activity of a therapeutic target remains a major challenge. Because of the harmful secondary effects of synthesized therapeutic molecules, the development of research has been oriented towards phytomedicines. Phenolic compounds from medicinal plants are constantly explored for new therapeutic use. METHODS: In this paper, we studied interactions between main enzymes responsible for causing type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and phenolic compounds from nettle (Urtica dioica L.) using molecular Docking with Molecular Operating Environment Software (MOE). RESULTS: Docking results show a common molecule (secoisolariciresinol), which may form stable complexes with depeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4), alpha-amylase and beta-glucosidase with binding energy of -7.04732084 kcal/mol, -3.82946181 kcal/mol and -4.16077089 kcal/mol respectively. Besides secoisolariciresinol, other phenolic compounds give better docking score than the original co-crystallized ligand for alpha-amylase (PDB ID 5U3A) and beta-glucosidase (PDB ID 1OGS). CONCLUSION: The obtained results are promising for the discovery of new alpha-amylase and betaglucosidase inhibitors. This study also confirms the folk use of nettle as antidiabetic agent.