Evaluation of bioactive compounds, free radical scavenging and anticancer activities of bulb extracts of Boophone disticha from Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

Abstract

Boophone disticha ( B. disticha ) is a bulbous tropical and subtropical flowering plant widespread in Africa, which is frequently used to treat several human ailments. Until the present, there is no scientific validation on the biological activity of this plant from the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa and as a result, this study aimed to assess the bioactive compounds, free radicals scavenging and anticancer potentials of crude bulb extracts (chloroform, acetone, and ethanol) of Boophone disticha obtained from this geographical location. Standard biochemical techniques and Gas-chromatography mass spectrometry (GCMS) analysis were used to pinpoint the bioactive compounds in the crude extracts sequel to their antioxidant potentials against radicals such as 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS), hydrogen peroxide and nitric oxide as well as their ferric ion reducing power. In addition, their cytotoxicity effects against Human cervix adenocarcinoma (HeLa) cells were assessed as an in vitro model for anticancer. The phytochemical evaluation of the crude extracts showed the presence of phenolics, flavonoids, and alkaloids. GCMS profiles confirmed the presence of some bioactive compounds in the crude extracts of B. disticha that could be responsible for their biological activities. The plant extracts possessed considerable antioxidant activity and exhibited dose-dependent radicals’ inhibition from all assays carried out. Furthermore, the cytotoxicity effects against HeLa cells recorded inhibition concentration (IC 50 ) of 1.5, 1.6, and 1.9 µg/mL for acetone, chloroform, and ethanolic extracts of B. disticha , respectively. Findings from the present study suggest that B. disticha could be a good prospective source of antioxidant and anticancer agents. Therefore, further research on the isolation and purification of compounds from these extracts are indispensable.

Phytochemical profiling of Azima tetracantha Lam. leaf methanol extract and elucidation of its potential as a chain-breaking antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-proliferative agent

“…The inhibition of the pro-inflammatory enzyme, lipoxygenase, was carried out as detailed in the publications previously reported ( Manga et al, 2020 ). The scavenging potential of the extracts on sodium nitroprusside-derived nitric oxide radical was conducted using the Griess reagent method ( Tonisi et al, 2020 ).…”

Phytochemical Composition and In Vitro Antioxidant, Anti-Inflammatory, Anticancer, and Enzyme-Inhibitory Activities of Artemisia nilagirica (C.B. Clarke) Pamp

“…The antioxidant activities were determined as the scavenging potentials of different radicals, including diphenyl picryl hydrazyl (DPPH), ABTS [ 67 ], and hydrogen peroxide [ 68 ]; the reducing potential on ferric ions was also estimated using the procedures described in [ 69 ]. The nitric oxide radical removal rate was used as an indicator of the inflammatory process inhibition model [ 70 ]. The DPPH was dissolved in methanol (0.1 mM) and varying concentrations of the extract were mixed with it.…”

A Systematic Review on Amaranthus-Related Research

“…Studies on phytochemical screening of Amaranthus revealed some important bioactive compounds that could be responsible for the various biological activities [22,107]. Other biological activities, such as antimicrobial [108][109][110], anti-inflammatory [32,[111][112][113], anti-malarial [114], anti-diabetes [35,115], anti-carcinogenic [39,116], and hepatoprotective [117] were reported in the literature. Detoxification is another keyword in Amaranthus research and a study on the detoxification effect of Amaranthus was reported by [26].…”

“…Commonly cultivated species of Amaranthus in Sub-Saharan Africa-for grain, leafy vegetables for human consumption and animal feed, treatment of chronic diseases, e.g., diabetes, hypertension, cardiac disorders, and other nutraceutical purposes-include Amaranthus cruentus L. [23][24][25], Amaranthus caudatus L. [14,21,23,26,27], Amaranthus hypochondriacus L. [28][29][30], Amaranthus viridis L. [26,31,32], Amaranthus spinosus L. [23,[33][34][35], Amaranthus muricatus (Gillies ex Moq.) Hieron.…”