Chemical composition, antibacterial and antifungal activities of essential oil from Heracleum Siamicum Craib

Comparative Content, Biological and Anticancer Activities of Heracleum humile Extracts Obtained by Ultrasound-Assisted Extraction Method

As the safety and effectiveness of synthetic drugs remain in doubt, researchers are trying to develop natural medicines from medicinal plants. Herein, ethyl acetate, methanol and water extracts from the Heracleum humile plant were obtained by an ultrasonic-assisted extraction process and the aim was to evaluate some biological effects of the extracts due to the limited data on the pharmacological properties of Heracleum humile in the literature. Weak antibacterial activity was observed on tested bacterial species. The minimum inhibitory concentration and the minimum bactericidal concentration values ranged from 250 to 500 μg/mL. In addition, cytotoxic activity was determined using the MTT test. The strongest findings were determined for ethyl acetate extract on the MDA-MB-231 cell lines at the 48^th  hour (IC₅₀ :97.94 μg/mL), followed by the MCF-7 cell lines at the 24^th  hour (IC₅₀ :103.9 μg/mL). All extracts of Heracleum humile contained mainly flavonoids, phenolic acids and their derivatives, i. e., well-known compounds that possess numerous biological activities such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antimicrobial etc. The study results could provide important information that Heracleum humile could be a potential candidate as a natural enzyme inhibitor. It can be concluded that these extracts could be useful in the elementary step of improving novel plant-derived multifunctional pharmaceuticals.

Edible wild plant Heracleum pyrenaicum subsp. orsinii as a potential new source of bioactive essential oils

Many Heracleum L. taxa (Apiaceae) are used as food and spices, and in traditional medicine. In this work, the chemical composition of Heracleum pyrenaicum subsp. orsinii (Guss.) F. Pedrotti and Pignatti root, leaf and fruit essential oils, their antimicrobial activity and cytotoxic effect on malignant and normal cells were investigated for the first time. The composition of the oils was analyzed by GC and GC-MS. Monoterpenes prevailed in the root oil, with β-pinene (38.6%) being dominant, while in the leaf oil, sesquiterpenes, mostly (E)-nerolidol (20.5%) and (E)-caryophyllene (17.0%), were the most abundant constituents. The fruit oil contained the majority of aliphatic esters, mainly octyl acetate (36.8%) and octyl hexanoate (22.1%). The antimicrobial activity was determined by microdilution method against eight bacteria and eight fungi (standard strains, clinical or food isolates). The best antibacterial activity, better than the activity of ampicillin, was shown by the root oil against Salmonella typhimurium, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The strongest antifungal activity, stronger than the activity of ketoconazole, was exhibited by the leaf and root oils against Trichoderma viride, and by the root oil against Aspergillus ochraceus. The cytotoxic effect of the oils, determined by MTT test, was prominent against malignant HeLa, LS174 and A549 cells (IC₅₀ = 6.49-14.56 μg/mL). On the other hand, the oils did not show toxicity against normal MRC-5 cells at tested concentrations (IC₅₀ > 200.00 μg/mL). It can be concluded that investigated H. pyrenaicum subsp. orsinii oils represent potential new raw materials for food and pharmaceutical industry.