Juniper berry oil is stated to possess a wide spectrum of pharmacological activities and its monographs are included in some National Pharmacopoeias. The antibacterial and antifungal activity of the oil was reported by some authors. In our study we estimated the antibacterial and antifungal activity of three different juniper berry oils and their main components. All the micro-organisms used in this experiment were isolated from patients of Regional Hospital of Gdańsk and some of them showed resistance against commonly used antibiotics. Only one of the oils (labelled A) revealed good antimicrobial properties. None of the single oil components was a stronger antibacterial and antifungal inhibitor than the oil A itself. Our data suggest that the antimicrobial activity of juniper oil A is the result of either the specific composition of the oil A (highest concentration of (-)-alpha-pinene, p-cymene and beta-pinene) or activity of a single non-identified compound. The presence of an adulterant in the oil was excluded.

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Kalanchoe species are well-known medicinal plants used in traditional medicine as anti-inflammatory and analgesic remedies. Recently, it has been reported that Kalanchoe plants have cytotoxic properties; however, data on traditional use of these plants in tumor treatment are extremely limited. Kalanchoe daigremontiana is one of the most popular species cultivated in Europe, and it is used, among other things, as a remedy in treating skin injuries and wounds. Studies on the biological activity of this species are scarce, and there is a lack of data on the cytotoxic activity of K. daigremontiana extracts on epithelial cancer cells in the literature. In our present study, we analyzed the phytochemical composition of K. daigremontiana ethanol extract and fractions–water and dichloromethane–by the HPLC-DAD-ESI-MS method and estimated cytotoxic activity of the extracts on human adenocarcinoma (HeLa), ovarian (SKOV-3), breast (MCF-7), and melanoma (A375) cell lines by MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay, real-time cell analyzer (RTCA), and flow cytometry. We identified 6 bufadienolide compounds and 19 flavonoids, mostly kaempferol, quercetin, isorhamnetin, and myricetin glycosides, of which only 3 flavonoids have been identified in K. daigremontiana to date. Other flavonoids that were characterized in our study have not yet been found in this plant. The ethanol extract and water fraction of K. daigremontiana did not show significant cytotoxic activity on the tested cell lines. In contrast, the dichloromethane fraction showed the strongest activity against all cell lines with IC50 values of ≤ 10 µg/mL. The results indicated that this activity is mainly due to the presence of bersaldegenin-1,3,5-orthoacetate.

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