Antioxidant and antibacterial activities of Artemisia absinthium and Citrus paradisi extracts repress viability of aggressive liver cancer cell line.

BACKGROUND: Numerous reports show that herbal medicines can be utilized in the treatment of different liver disorders. In this study, antioxidant, antibacterial, and anticancer activities of individual as well as combined 80% ethanolic extracts of Artemisia absinthium leaves and Citrus paradisi peels were investigated. METHODS AND RESULTS: Values of total phenolic contents (TPC), total flavonoid contents (TFC), DPPH-radical scavenging activity, and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) were measured to explore the antioxidant capacity. To assess antibacterial activity, four bacterial strains (Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella enterica, and Klebsiella pneumoniae) were used. Anticancer activity was assessed on Huh-7 (liver cancer) and Vero (non-cancerous) cell lines. FRAP activity of combined plants extract was higher as compared to their individual effect; the trend did not hold in the case of DPPH-radical scavenging activity. Antibacterial activity of combined extracts by disk diffusion method was observed only against E.coli. MTT results indicated that both plants had a cytotoxic effect on Huh-7 cell line but did not show any effect on Vero cell line. Our data showed a strong negative correlation between the amount of TPC, TFC, & DPPH radicals-scavenging activity and viability of Huh-7 cell line.However, no effect was shown on the non-cancerous cell line. CONCLUSION: The ethanolic extracts of Artemisia absinthium leaves and Citrus paradisi peels can be used against liver cancer because of their antioxidant, antibacterial, and anticancer activities.

[Concentrations of alkaloids, cyanogenic glycosides, polyphenols and saponins in selected medicinal plants from Ecuador and their relationship with acute toxicity against Artemia salina]. / Concentraciones de alcaloides, glucósidos cianogénicos, polifenoles y saponinas en plantas medicinales seleccionadas en Ecuador y su relación con la toxicidad aguda contra Artemia salina.

Alkaloids, polyphenols, cyanogenic glycosides and saponins are among the main chemical compounds synthesized by plants but not considered essential for their basic metabolism. These compounds have different functions in plants, and have been recognized with medicinal and pharmacological properties. In this research, concentrations of the mentioned secondary metabolites were determined in the medicinal plants Artemisia absinthium, Cnidoscolus aconitifolius, Parthenium hysterophorus, Piper carpunya and Taraxacum officinale, from Ecuador, and related with cytotoxic effects against Artemia salina. Alcoholic and aqueous extracts from leaves of these selected plants were prepared at different concentrations. To assess cytotoxicity of these extracts, different bioassays with A. salina were undertaken, and the mortality rates and LC50 were obtained. Besides, concentrations of alkaloids, cyanogenic glycosides, phenols, tannins and saponins were determined by spectrophotometric methods; this constituted the first report of quantification of secondary metabolites in the selected plants from Ecuador. T. officinale had the highest concentration of total phenols (22.30 ± 0.23 mg/g) and tannins (11.70 ± 0.10 mg/g), C. aconitifolius of cyanogenic glycosides (5.02 ± 0.37 µg/g) and P. hysterophorus of saponins (6.12 ± 0.02 mg/g). Tannins values obtained were not adverse to their consumption. Alcoholic and aqueous extracts of selected plants had hemolytic activity depending on the concentration of saponins. Although the values of cyanogenic glycosides were permissible, it was necessary to monitor the presence of this metabolite in plants to minimize health problems. LC50 values ranged from extremely toxic (3.37 µg/mL) to highly toxic (274.34 µg/mL), in P. carpunya and T. officinale, respectively. From correlation analysis, it was observed that increase values of alkaloids concentrations had highly significant (p<0.001) acute toxicity against A. salina, while at a higher polyphenol concentration the level of plants cytotoxicity decreased significantly (p<0.001). The results of principal component analysis showed that saponins apparently were in synergy with polyphenols to decrease cytotoxicity, but antagonize with alkaloids and cyanogenic glycosides, indicating that these secondary metabolites present variability in the mechanisms of action against A. salina, as cytotoxic compounds. These results also demonstrate that polyphenols and saponins can be lethal at low concentrations, demonstrating the potential of brine shrimp bioassay as a model to evaluate plant extracts containing low concentrations of chemical compounds with high polarities. The significant positive correlation between cytotoxicity and concentration of alkaloids confirmed by the bioassay of brine shrimp can be useful to identify promising sources of antitumor compounds, and to evaluate tolerable limits not affecting other benign cells. Contents of secondary metabolites found in the selected plants confer them great pharmacologic values.

Inhibitory effect of herbal remedy PERVIVO and anti-inflammatory drug sulindac on L-1 sarcoma tumor growth and tumor angiogenesis in Balb/c mice.

Anticancer activity of many herbs was observed for hundreds of years. They act as modifiers of biologic response, and their effectiveness may be increased by combining multiple herbal extracts . PERVIVO, traditional digestive herbal remedy, contains some of them, and we previously described its antiangiogenic activity. Numerous studies documented anticancer effects of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. We were the first to show that sulindac and its metabolites inhibit angiogenesis. In the present paper the combined in vivo effect of multicomponent herbal remedy PERVIVO and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug sulindac on tumor growth, tumor angiogenesis, and tumor volume in Balb/c mice was studied. These effects were checked after grafting cells collected from syngeneic sarcoma L-1 tumors into mice skin. The strongest inhibitory effect was observed in experimental groups treated with PERVIVO and sulindac together. The results of our investigation showed that combined effect of examined drugs may be the best way to get the strongest antiangiogenic and antitumor effect.

Chemical composition of the essential oil of Artemisia absinthium growing wild in Iran.

Studies were conducted to investigate the composition of essential oil of wormwood (Artemisia absinthium L.) growing wild in Iran. The wormwood aerial parts were harvested in full blooming time from an area between Deylaman and Asiabar villages, at Alborz altitudes in Guilan province in September 2005. Aerial parts were dried at shade (room temperature) for several days and their essential oil was extracted by hydrodistillation method in a Clevenger apparatus and analyzed by GC/MS. Results showed that essential oil yield was 1.3%. Twenty eight components representing 93.3% of the oil were identified, which were mostly monoterpenes. beta-pinene and beta-thujone were the main components, which their contents were 23.8 and 18.6% respectively. The largest part of the essential oil was formed by hydrocarbon monoterpenes (47.8%). The results proved that chemotype of the studied wormwood essential oil was specific and different from other wormwood essential oil chemotypes, which have been reported so far.