Analysis of Peganum harmala, Melia azedarach and Morus alba extracts against six lethal human cancer cells and oxidative stress along with chemical characterization through advance Fourier Transform and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopic methods towards green chemotherapeutic agents

Abstract

Traditional medicines implicate consumption of plant crude extracts, which may consist of extensive phytochemical diversity. Overall, the most biologically active extract of Peganum harmala (seeds) exhibited significant cytotoxic activity on Artemia salina with LC 50 value of 61.547 µg/mL, while P. harmala (roots) [LC 50 = 124.229 µg/mL] and M. azedarach (fruits) [LC 50 = 147.813 µg/mL] showed moderate cytotoxic potential. P. harmala (seeds) extract also showed the maximum antitumor potential with 52.278 µg/mL LC 50 . Branches of P. harmala and Morus alba were not active in both bioassays. These outcomes were further reinforced by the levels of phenolics and flavonoids checked against gallic acid and quercetin equivalents, respectively, by standard curves. Current study aims to isolate, structurally characterize and analyze the bioactive compound from plant extracts by using chromatographic and spectrophotometric techniques. Bioactivity guided isolation of extracts led to the isolation of PH-HM-16 from ethyl acetate fraction P. harmala seeds. Chemical structure of PH-HM-16 was elucidated by ESI-MS, 1 H NMR, 13 C NMR, HSQC and IR spectrum. The results demonstrated significant positive anticancer activities against six human cancer cell lines assessed through MTT cancer cell growth inhibition assay. PH-HM-16 was most effective against prostate cancer cell lines [IC 50 = 17.63 µg/mL] followed by breast cancer cell line MCF7 [IC 50 value of 41.81 µg/mL]. IC 50 value of PH-HM-16 against human myeloid leukemia cell line HL-60 and human colorectal tumor cells HCT-116 was observed as 68.77 µg/mL and 71.54 µg/mL respectively. The IC 50 value of PH-HM-16 compound was not significant against human gastric cancer SGC-7901 (111.89 µg/mL) and human lung adenocarcinoma epithelial cell line A549 (176.04 µg/mL). Isolated bioactive metabolite PH-HM-16 possesses significant antitumor potential so this could be the first step to develop an effective anticancer agent. Hence, this compound represents a promising potential to be chemically standardized or developed into pharmaceuticals for the chemoprevention and/or the treatment of certain types of cancer, especially as adjuvant phytotherapeutics in conventional chemotherapy.

Molecular docking of bioactive compounds extracted and purified from selected medicinal plant species against covid-19 proteins and in vitro evaluation

“…The binding energies obtained by docking of 6LUS protein with ligands (compound) in a sequence (1) tiliroside (2) quercitin-3-o-rhamnoside (3) Astragalin (4) isomangiferrin (5) mangiferrin (6) Irriflophenone-3-C-β- D-Glucopyranoside (7) harmaline (8) harmine (9) vasicine was − 12, − 12.6, − 12.0, − 11.6, − 11.2, − 11.1, − 6.7, − 6.6, − 6.5 (Table 5 ). First time molecular docking of these compounds was done but in previous study, in vitro analysis of these plants on such activities like anticancer, antioxidant, antibacterial and antiviral has been exhibited 2 , 11 , 15 , 18 , 21 , 29 , 36 – 39 .…”

“…The isoxazole derivatives of harmine show anti-alzheimer activity 10 . Roots and seed extract of P. harmala were most biologically active, having strong anticancer and cytotoxic effects, presumably due to the presence of phytochemicals such flavonoids and phenolics 11 .…”