LC-ESI/MS-Phytochemical Profiling with Antioxidant, Antibacterial, Antifungal, Antiviral and In Silico Pharmacological Properties of Algerian Asphodelus tenuifolius (Cav.) Organic Extracts.

Asphodelus tenuifolius Cav. (A. tenuifolius) is a medicinal plant with a long history of traditional use to treat ailments. In this study, total phenolic and flavonoid content evaluation using LC-ESI/MS analysis and various biological activities (antioxidant, antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral and cytotoxicity) of organic extracts from the aerial parts of A. tenuifolius were analyzed. ADME tools were used to predict the potential of the identified compounds from the most potent extract as specific drugs. As shown, LC-ESI/MS results of chloroformic extract allowed the tentative identification of 12 compounds. Chloroformic extract was rich in polyphenols and flavonoids and exhibited the highest antioxidant activity given by DPPH (IC50 = 25 µg/mL) as compared to the BHT standard (11.5 µg/mL) and ß-carotene bleaching assays (IC50 = 95.692 µg/mL). Antibacterial activity results showed that chloroformic extract has a highest activity against Gram-positive and -negative bacteria, especially against Salmonella Typhimurium DT104 (IZ = 19.3 mm, MIC = 18.75 mg/mL, MBC = 37.5 mg/mL). The MBC/MIC ratio was evaluated to interpret the activity that was bacteriostatic rather than bactericidal. Conversely, weaker antifungal activity was registered, and no antiviral activity was observed for all extracts against Herpes Simplex Virus type 2 and Coxsakievirus B-3 viruses. Cytotoxic activity on VERO cell line results revealed that butanol extract was not toxic, with CC50 value of 1430 µg/mL, while chloroformic extract showed moderate cytotoxicity. Additionally, in silico studies performed proved promising pharmacokinetic and drug-likeness properties of the main compounds from the chloroformic extract. Taken together, this work highlights the potent bioactivity and acceptable drug-likeness of this plant, which supports its further preclinical development.

Isolation of an antiviral compound from Tunisian olive twig cultivars.

(1) Many studies demonstrated that olive oil and the leaves have several biological activities, but the works on olive twigs remain very limited. In this report, we investigated for anti-coxsackievirus B-3 (CVB-3) and anti-herpes virus type 2 (HSV-2) activities of olive twigs from two Tunisian varieties: Chemlali (CM) and Chétoui (CT). Extraction from the olive twigs was carried out using successively hexane, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate and methanol. The obtained extracts were evaluated for their anti-CVB-3 and anti-HSV-2 activities by MTT and plaque reduction assays, respectively. Only hexane extracts exhibited significant activity with a selectivity index of 6.32±0.67 and 5.24±0.82 for CM and CT, respectively. The active compound was isolated through bio-guided assays using Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) and identified as 2,4-di-tert-butylphenol (2,4-DTBP) by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS). This work is the first study that demonstrated an antiviral activity of both olive twigs and DTBP.