In vitro anticancer, antioxidant and enzyme inhibitory potentials of endemic Cephalaria elazigensis var. purpurea with in silico studies.

In this study, the therapeutic potential and phytochemical composition of ethanolic extract of Cephalaria elazigensis var. purpurea (CE), an endemic species, were investigated. For this purpose, the antiproliferative effect of CE on the MCF-7 human breast cancer cell line was evaluated by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay, and its effectiveness on colony formation and cell migration was analyzed with clonogenic assay and wound healing assay, respectively. In addition, the cell death detection ELISA (CDDE) assay was conducted to determine the pro-apoptotic capacity of CE. The IC50 value of the CE was determined as 324.2 ± 14.7 µg/mL. Furthermore, upon 1000 µg/mL CE treatment, there was 4.96-fold increase in the population of cells undergoing apoptosis compared to the untreated control cells. The antioxidant activity tests were performed by DPPH free radical, ABTS cation radical, ferric-ion reducing power (FRAP) and ferrous-ion chelating power (FCAP) assays. Antioxidant activity values for the DPPH, ABTS and FRAP assays were found to be 125.6 ± 6.3, 34.09 ± 0.1 and 123.4 ± 4.2 µmol TE/mg DE, respectively. We further determined the effect of CE ethanolic extract against acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE) enzymes. CE plays an effective inhibitory role in AChE and BuChE (AChE: IC50: 10.54 µg/mL, BuChE: IC50: 6.84 µg/mL) respectively. Further, molecular docking stuy was conducted to understand the nature of the all compound against AChE an BChE. It is revealed that α-Linolenic acid shows lowest binding energy (-7.90 kcal/mol) towards AChE, on the other side, Linoleic acid shows good binding affinity (-7.40 kcal/mol) for BChE.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.

The isolation of secondary metabolites from Rheum ribes L. and the synthesis of new semi-synthetic anthraquinones: Isolation, synthesis and biological activity.

Rheum ribes L. (Rhubarb) is one of the most important edible medicinal plants in the Eastern Anatolia region and is called "Iskin" by local people. Resveratrol and 6-O-methylalaternin were isolated from the Rhubarb for the first time in addition to well-known secondary metabolites including emodin, aloe-emodin, ß-sitosterol and rutin. The new semi-synthetic anthraquinone derivatives with the NαFmoc-l-Lys and ethynyl group were synthesized from the isolated anthraquinones emodin and aloe-emodin of Rhubarb to increase the bioactivities. Aloe-emodin derivative with NαFmoc-l-Lys shows the highest inhibition values by 94.11 ± 0.12 and 82.38 ± 0.00% against HT-29 and HeLa cell lines, respectively, at 25 µg/mL. Further, modification of the aloe-emodin with both the ethynyl and the NαFmoc-l-Lys groups showed an antioxidant activity-enhancing effect. From molecular docking studies, the relative binding energies of the emodin and aloe-emodin derivatives to human serum albumin ranged from -7.30 and -10.62 kcal/mol.

Plasma Protein Binding of Herbal-Flavonoids to Human Serum Albumin and Their Anti-proliferative Activities.

Herbal-flavonoids (HF) as polyphenolic secondary metabolites are taken in the daily diet to join in many metabolic processes in the human organism. Anti-proliferative activities and human serum albumin (HSA) binding capacities of herbal-flavonoids namely 7,5'-dimethoxyisoetin (HF1), homoorientin-6''-4-O-methyl-myo-inositol (HF2), (2R, 3R)-(+)-dihydrokaempferol-7,4'-dimethylether (HF3), eriodictyol-7,4'-dimethylether (HF4) and flavonoids isoorientin (HF5) and genkwanin (HF6) were investigated. Anti-proliferative activities were determined by the xCELLigence system by treatment with human prostate (PC3) and cervical cancer (HeLa) cells. The binding capacities were studied by two-dimensional (2D-FL) and three-dimensional (3D-FL) fluorescence spectroscopy. HeLa and PC3 cell lines were treated with flavonoids at 10, 50 and 100 µg/mL concentrations over a 48 hour period. Stable anti-proliferative efficacy plots were obtained for tested flavonoids. From the flavonoids, HF3 and HF4 showed the strongest anti-proliferative effect against PC3 and HeLa cell line. HF1 and HF2 exhibited the strongest binding capacity to the HSA corresponding to Kb values of 3.81 x 104 M-1 and 6.00 x 104 M-1, respectively. The studies revealed that the flavonoids form the basis of in vivo preclinical studies as important nutraceuticals of the daily diet, as well as modelled in medical and pharmacological applications.

A new nutraceutical resource from a rare native plant growing in Turkey and for its spectro-chemical and biological insights: Endemic Diplotaenia bingolensis (Apiaceae).

The present study designed to investigate the quantitative distributions in the secondary metabolites and biological activity of sub-fractions obtained successively from water and methanol: dichloromethane (rate 1:1; v:v) solvent decoction of Diplotenia bingolensis aerial parts. The crude extracts were obtained from the aerial parts of the endemic D. bingolensis species refluxing with water and organic solvents. Sub-fractions of water extract were obtained by successive fractionation of the water extract with hexane (WH), dichloromethane (WD), ethyl acetate (WE) and n-butanol (WB), respectively. Sub-fractions of organic solvent were obtained by fractionation of the organic crude extract with hexane (OH), dichloromethane (OD), ethyl acetate (OE), n-butanol (OB) and water (OW), respectively. The total amount of phenols and flavonoids contained in each sub-fraction was analyzed by UV-VIS spectrophotometer, analysis of lipophilic components by GC-MS spectrometer, and quantitative analysis of hydrophilic components by HPLC-TOF/MS spectrophotometer. Furthermore, the biological activity of each sub-fraction was compared with different antioxidant activities such as DPPH radical scavenging activity and ferric ion reduction capacity. Sub-fraction WD (137.1 ±â€¯2.1 µg QE/mg DI) and OE (127.1 ±â€¯5.2 µg QE/mg DI) in terms of flavonoid content, sub-fraction WD (665.8 ±â€¯47.6 µg GAE/mg DI) and OE (724.6 ±â€¯43.6 µg GAE/mg DI) were the richest isolates in terms of total phenol content. Sub-fractions OH and OD contained linoleic acid (17.0 and 11.0%, respectively) and linolenic acid (22.1 and 18.5%, respectively). It was revealed that sub-fractions were rich in terms of rutin (1.2-47.2 µg HC/mg DI) and chlorogenic acid (0.1-12.1 µg HC/mg DI). Sub-fractions WD and OE were showed the highest DPPH radical scavenging activity with 46.4 ±â€¯1.4 and 47.6 ±â€¯10.0 µg/mL EC50 values, respectively. This study is the first to demonstrate biological insight of the potential antioxidant activity of D. bingolensis. These findings warrant the popular use of the endemic D. bingolensis and highlight the potential of its active constituents in the development of new antioxidative drugs.