Anti-inflammatory and anticholinesterase activity of six flavonoids isolated from Polygonum and Dorstenia species.

This study was aimed at investigating the anti-inflammatory and anticholinesterase activity of six naturally occurring flavonoids: (-) pinostrobin (1), 2',4'-dihydroxy-3',6'-dimethoxychalcone (2), 6-8-diprenyleriodictyol (3), isobavachalcone (4), 4-hydroxylonchocarpin (5) and 6-prenylapigenin (6). These compounds were isolated from Dorstenia and Polygonum species used traditionally to treat pain. The anti-inflammatory activity was determined by using the Griess assay and the 15-lipoxygenase inhibitory activity was determined with the ferrous oxidation-xylenol orange assay. Acetylcholinesterase inhibition was determined by the Ellman's method. At the lowest concentration tested (3.12 µg/ml), compounds 2, 3 and 4 had significant NO inhibitory activity with 90.71, 84.65 and 79.57 % inhibition respectively compared to the positive control quercetin (67.93 %). At this concentration there was no significant cytotoxicity against macrophages with 91.67, 72.86 and 70.86 % cell viability respectively, compared to 73.1 % for quercetin. Compound 4 had the most potent lipoxygenase inhibitory activity (IC50 of 25.92 µg/ml). With the exception of (-) pinostrobin (1), all the flavonoids had selective anticholinesterase activity with IC50 values ranging between 5.93 and 8.76 µg/ml compared to the IC50 4.94 µg/ml of eserine the positive control. These results indicate that the studied flavonoids especially isobavachalcone are potential anti-inflammatory natural products that may have the potential to be developed as therapeutic agents against inflammatory conditions and even Alzheimer's disease.

Cytotoxicity and modes of action of 4'-hydroxy-2',6'-dimethoxychalcone and other flavonoids toward drug-sensitive and multidrug-resistant cancer cell lines.

INTRODUCTION: Resistance of cancer to chemotherapy is a main cause in treatment failure. Naturally occurring chalcones possess a wide range of biological activities including anti-cancer effects. In this work, we evaluated the antiproliferative activity of three chalcones [4'-hydroxy-2',6'-dimethoxychalcone (1), cardamomin (2), 2',4'-dihydroxy-3',6'-dimethoxychalcone (3)], and four flavanones [(S)-(-)-pinostrobin (4), (S)-(-)-onysilin (5) and alpinetin (6)] toward nine cancer cell lines amongst which were multidrug resistant (MDR) types. METHODS: The resazurin reduction assay was used to detect the antiproliferative activity of the studied samples whilst flow cytometry for the mechanistic studies of the most active molecule (1). RESULTS: IC50 values in a range of 2.54 µM against CEM/ADR5000 leukemia cells to 58.63 µM toward hepatocarcinoma HepG2 cells were obtained with 1. The lowest IC50 values of 8.59 µM for 2 and 10.67 µM for 3 were found against CCRF-CEM cells leukemia cells, whilst the corresponding values were above 80 µM for 4 and 6. P-glycoprotein-expressing and multidrug-resistant CEM/ADR5000 cells were much more sensitive toward compound 1 than toward doxorubicin and low cross-resistance or even collateral sensitivity was observed in other drug-resistent cell lines to this compound. Normal liver AML12 cells were more resistant to the studied compounds than HepG2 liver cancer cells, indicating tumor specificity at least to some extent. Compound 1 arrested the cell cycle between Go/G1 phase, strongly induced apoptosis via disrupted mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) and increased production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the studied leukemia cell line. CONCLUSIONS: Chalcone 1 was the best tested cytotoxic molecule and further studies will be performed in order to envisage its possible use in the fight against multifactorial resistant cancer cells.

Antibacterial activities of selected edible plants extracts against multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria.

BACKGROUND: In response to the propagation of bacteria resistant to many antibiotics also called multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacteria, the discovery of new and more efficient antibacterial agents is primordial. The present study was aimed at evaluating the antibacterial activities of seven Cameroonian dietary plants (Adansonia digitata, Aframomum alboviolaceum, Aframomum polyanthum, Anonidium. mannii, Hibiscus sabdarifa, Ocimum gratissimum and Tamarindus indica). METHODS: The phytochemical screening of the studied extracts was performed using described methods whilst the liquid broth micro dilution was used for all antimicrobial assays against 27 Gram-negative bacteria. RESULTS: The results of the phytochemical tests indicate that all tested extracts contained phenols and triterpenes, other classes of chemicals being selectively present. The studied extracts displayed various degrees of antibacterial activities. The extracts of A. digitata, H. sabdarifa, A. polyanthum, A. alboviolaceum and O. gratissimum showed the best spectra of activity, their inhibitory effects being recorded against 81.48%, 66.66%, 62.96%, 55.55%, and 55.55% of the 27 tested bacteria respectively. The extract of A. polyanthum was very active against E. aerogenes EA294 with the lowest recorded minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 32 µg/ml. CONCLUSION: The results of the present work provide useful baseline information for the potential use of the studied edible plants in the fight against both sensitive and MDR phenotypes.

Cytotoxicity and antimicrobial activity of the methanol extract and compounds from Polygonum limbatum.

The present study was designed to investigate the antimicrobial activity and the cytotoxicity of the methanol extract (PLA) as well as fractions (PLA1-4) and compounds [cardamomin (1), (±)-polygohomoisoflavanone (2), (S)-(-)-pinostrobin (3), 2',4'-dihydroxy-3',6'-dimethoxychalcone (4), (2S)-(-)-5-hydroxy-6,7-dimethoxyflavanone (5), and (2S)-(-)-5,7-dimethoxyflavanone (6)] obtained from leaves of Polygonum limbatum. The microbroth dilution was used to determine the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the samples against 11 microbial strains including Candida albicans, C. krusei, C. tropicalis, Aspergillus fumigatus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecalis (VRE), Staphylococcus aureus, methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), S.epidermidis, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv. The sulphorhodamine B cell growth inhibition assay was used to assess the cytotoxicity of the above samples on lung A549 adenocarcinoma, breast carcinoma MCF-7, prostate carcinoma PC-3, cervical carcinoma HeLa, and the acute monocytic leukemia cell line THP-1. The results of the MIC determination indicated that, apart from fraction PLA3, all other fractions as well as PLA and compound 3 were selectively active. MIC values were noted on 100 % of the 11 tested microorganisms for fraction PLA3, 72.7 % for PLA, fraction PLA2, and compound 4, 63.6 % for PLA1, and 54.5 % for fraction PLA4. The results of the cytotoxicity assay revealed that, except for A459 cells, more than 50 % inhibition of the proliferation was obtained with each of the tested samples on at least one of the four other cell lines. IC50 values below 4 µg/mL were obtained with 1 and 4 on THP-1 cells. The overall results of the present study provided baseline information for the possible use of Polygonum limbatum as well as some of the isolated compounds for the control of cancer diseases and mostly leukemia.