Title:Profiling of Biologically Active Metabolites of Spergula fallax L. Using High-resolution UPLC-QTOF-MS
Volume: 23
Issue: 14
Author(s): Taghreed Ibrahim*, Mostafa Hegazy and Atef El-Hela
Affiliation:
- Department of Pharmacognosy, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh, 11549, Saudi Arabia
- Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt
Keywords:
Antioxidant, cytotoxic, antimicrobial, antiviral, ultra-performance liquid chromatography, mass spectroscopy, flavonoids, phenolics.
Abstract:
Background: Medicinal plants are recognized to have a wide range of important biological
activities, Spergula fallax L. is a well-known plant while phytochemical and biological activities
screening of the species are rare.
Objective: This study aims to evaluate the antioxidant, anticáncer, antimicrobial, and antiviral activities
of the methanol extract (ME) of the aerial parts of Spergula fallax L. and its successive fractions;
n-hexane (HF), ethyl acetate (EAF), and n-butanol (BF) fractions and identify their biologically active
metabolites.
Methods: Ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) coupled to quadrupole high-resolution
time-of-flight mass spectrometry (QTOF-MS) was utilized to establish the metabolic profile of
Sergula fallax L. Total phenol and flavonoids content were determined colorimetrically using Folin
Ciocalteu and aluminum chloride reagents, respectively. 1,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) was
utilized for estimation of antioxidant activity, cytotoxic activity was determined on Hep-G2, HCT-
116, and MCF-7 cell lines, and agar diffusion method was used for screening of antimicrobial activity
while cytopathic effect inhibition assay was utilized for antiviral assay.
Results: Twenty-eight metabolites were identified, flavonoids were predominated (26), it was characterized
by the presence of four main aglycones (Apigenin, luteolin, quercetin and kaempferol) with
their O and/or C-glycosides based on its MS fragments. ME and EAF significantly scavenged DPPH
in a dose-dependent manner with IC50 16.99 and 18.74 μg.mL-1, respectively. Among the tested
samples, only ME and EAF showed significant cytotoxic activity against the tested cell lines with
IC50 ranging from 5.541- 9.509 μg.mL-1. All tested samples significantly inhibited the growth of the
tested bacterial strains with inhibition zone diameters ranging from 11.2- 26.4 mm and showed a
wide range of antiviral activity.
Conclusion: Generally, S. fallax is potentially bioactive as evident by antioxidant, cytotoxic, antibacterial,
and antiviral assays. These activities are correlated with its identified metabolites. The
results proved that S. fallax has promising medicinal activities and would be examined in future clinical
trials for herbal therapy.
