Phytochemical Screening and Cytotoxic Properties of Ethanolic Extract of Young and Mature Khat Leaves

Abstract

The khat plant has been culturally used in many parts of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula for many years to induce psycho-stimulating effect. Because of the global wide-spreading nature, khat chewing is being considered as a universally growing problem. Catha abbottii, Catha edulis, and Catha transvaalensis are the three species of khat commonly chewed in Saudi Arabia and nearby regions. Khat users usually prefer to chew young leaves over mature ones due to the diverse effects produced by both. Though many of the constituents of khat leaves have been identified, the complete phytochemical profile of young and mature leaves was not performed or compared; also, no evidence is available to affirm the cytotoxicity of young or mature leaves. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the phytochemical basis of the differential response of the young and mature leaves and to assess the cytotoxicity of young and mature khat leaves. Ethanolic extracts of young and mature leaves of three khat cultivars were subjected to GC-MS. Hierarchical cluster analysis revealed the existence of two major clusters. The extracts of young leaves were found to contain the maximum content of cathinone; however, methoxyamphetamine was found in only one extract of young leaves. Cytotoxicity investigations were also conducted on both types of leaves using three cancer cell lines, human breast adenocarcinoma, human ovary adenocarcinoma, and human colon adenocarcinoma and also normal human fetal lung fibroblast cell line was used. All extracts showed comparable cytotoxicity, IC50 ranging from 22–59 μg/mL on the cancer cells; however, we observed more cytotoxicity against normal cells (IC50: 6–41 μg/mL). The predominant cytotoxicity on normal cells may pose many health hazards to khat consumers.

Exploring the effect of khat (Catha edulis) chewing on the pharmacokinetics of the antiplatelet drug clopidogrel in rats using the newly developed LC-MS/MS technique

“…Generally, the leaves of khat are chewed on a daily basis by more than 20 million people on the Arabian Peninsula and Eastern part of Africa [25,26]. A large number of people chew khat leaves due to their amphetamine-like properties involving a variety of pleasurable and stimulating effects [27]. It is expected that around 500 g of fresh khat leaves are chewed by the user per day depending upon the variety of khat, nature of the user, and the availability in market.…”

“…More than 60 phytochemicals have been isolated and identified from khat [25]. Our previous research using GC-MS has also identified a number of constituents of khat plants including cathine and cathinone alkaloids [26,27]. The stimulating and euphoric effects of khat are due to the presence of these alkaloids in the plants.…”

Unraveling the Catha edulis Extract Effects on the Cellular and Molecular Signaling in SKOV3 Cells

“…Young and mature khat leaves constituent analysis has been recently well-documented. This hierarchical cluster analysis showed that cathine and cathinone were the major components and associated with significant cytotoxicity ( Alsanosy et al, 2020 ). The use of khat for medicinal treatment is not yet fully understood, but it has been used to treat serious diseases such as gonorrhea, asthma, chest complications, depression, gastric ulcers, obesity, and tiredness (reviewed by Kiros, 2020 ).…”

“…At least 200 constituents in the khat leaves have been recently identified ( Kiros, 2020 ). Khat leaves contain a considerable number of alkaloids, among which major active constituents are cathinone (S-(-)-2-amino-1-phenyl-1-propanone), cathine (1S, 2S-norpseudoephedrine), 62 highly complex cathedulins (polyhydroxylated sesquiterpenes), flavonoids, glycosides, ascorbic acid, tannins, sterols, triterpenes, and smaller amounts of 1 R , 2 S -norephedrine ( Halbach, 1972 ; Kalix and Braenden, 1985 ; Kite et al, 2003 ; Wabe, 2011 ; Alsanosy et al, 2020 ; Kiros, 2020 ). Young and mature khat leaves constituent analysis has been recently well-documented.…”

Coenzyme Q10 nullified khat-induced hepatotoxicity, nephrotoxicity and inflammation in a mouse model

“…Other than demonstrating the oxidative damage potential of khat, the perturbations in GR and SOD additionally demonstrate the DNA-damage-potential of khat, given that 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine is a marker of nucleic acid damage due to oxidative stress (Rosy and Goyal, 2016). This finding may have direct implication in carcinogenesis and could partly be associated to the incidences of khat-induced cancers in humans (Alsanosy et al, 2020;Eftekhari et al, 2018b;Kryston et al, 2011).…”