Chemical Profiling and Discrimination of Essential Oils from Six Ferula Species Using GC Analyses Coupled with Chemometrics and Evaluation of Their Antioxidant and Enzyme Inhibitory Potential

Abstract

The differences in the composition of essential oils obtained from the aerial parts of six Ferula species viz., F. caratavica (Fc), F. kuchistanica (Fk), F. pseudoreoselinum (Fp), F. samarcandica (Fs), F. tenuisecta (Ft) and F. varia (Fv) were detected both qualitatively and quantitatively using GC-MS and GC-FID analyses. One hundred and six metabolites were identified that account for 92.1, 96.43, 87.43, 95.95, 92.90 and 89.48% of Fc, Fk, Fp, Fs, Ft and Fv whole essential oils, respectively. The data from the GC-MS analyses were subjected to unsupervised pattern recognition chemometric analysis utilizing principal component analysis (PCA) to improve the visualization of such differences among the six species. Fk and Ft are very closely related to each other and were gathered together in one cluster. The antioxidant potential was assessed in vitro using different assays including 2,2′-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) (ABTS), cupric reducing antioxidant capacity (CUPRAC), ferric reducing power (FRAP) and phosphomolybdenum (PM) assays. Ft and Fp exhibited the most notable antioxidant properties as evidenced by their pronounced activities in most of the antioxidant assays performed, followed by Fc. Fk showed the most effective tyrosinase inhibitory potential, which was estimated as 119.67 mgKAE/g oil, while Fp exhibited the most potent α-amylase inhibitory potential, which was equivalent to 2.61 mmol ACAE/g oil. Thus, it was concluded that Ferula species could serve as a promising natural antioxidant drug that could be included in different products and spices to alleviate hyperglycemia and used as a natural ingredient in pharmaceutical cosmetics to counteract hyperpigmentation.

GC-MS Based Identification of the Volatile Components of Six Astragalus Species from Uzbekistan and Their Biological Activity

“…The presented results could open new windows for potential medical applications of the members of Astragalus. Comparing our present results with those for Ferula essential oils, it was seen that the latter showed superior activity [ 30 ].…”

Discrimination of the Essential Oils Obtained from Four Apiaceae Species Using Multivariate Analysis Based on the Chemical Compositions and Their Biological Activity

“…In F. tunetana, α-pinene (39.8%) was the main component [17] and α-thujene (13.5%) is present in the highest concentration in F. tingitana [18]. On the same context, these results were following our previous studies on other Ferula species where D-limonene was a major identified component in 6 different Ferula species [19]. These diverse metabolic profiles of Ferula, can be attributed to the wide spread of the genus in many continents and the subsequent great variability in the climatic and the soil characteristics, which have a great impact on the essential oils composition in the plants [20].…”

Ecdysteroids as Potent Enzyme Inhibitors and Verification of Their Activity Using In Vitro and In Silico Docking Studies

“…Multivariate data analysis was carried out using the data obtained from different in vitro biological assays, and the data resulting from ADMET postulation representing human intestinal absorption, aqueous solubility, blood–brain barrier penetration (BBB), hepatotoxicity, plasma protein binding (PPB), in addition to cytochrome P450 (2D6) inhibition. This was performed using the unsupervised pattern recognition technique by principal component analysis (PCA) through CAMO’s Unscrambler ® X 10.4 software (Computer-Aided Modeling, As, Norway) [ 24 , 25 ].…”