Scutellaria orientalis subsp. Bornmuelleri: phytochemical composition and biological activities

Evaluating Antibiofilm, Cytotoxic and Apoptotic Activities of Scutellaria brevibracteata subsp. brevibracteata Essential Oil

Essential oils have many important biological properties, including antibacterial and antibiofilm activities. These unique properties make, essential oils good alternatives to synthetic chemical drugs, which have many side effects. In this study, we aimed to determine the chemical composition and biological activity of the essential oil obtained from Scutellaria brevibracteata subsp. brevibracteata. Specifically, its antibiofilm activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 and Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 29213 biofilms using XTT assay. Cytotoxic and apoptotic properties of the essential oil were investigated in human lung cancer cells (A540 and H1299) using MTT assay, Annexin V-FITC and propidium iodide staining and q-PCR. Thirty-two different compounds were identified from the essential oil, of which elemol (20.42 %), γ-eudesmol (20.12 %) and β-eudesmol (14.85 %) were the main components. The essential oil was more effective against P. aeruginosa PAO1 biofilm (79 %) than S. aureus ATCC 29213 biofilm (27 %). The specific activity of the essential oil against P. aeruginosa biofilm may be related to its high terpene contents. In addition, the essential oil showed high cytotoxic activity towards A549 (IC50 9.09 μg/ml) and H1299 (IC50 55.04 μg/ml) cell lines, inducing apoptosis in these cancer cells. These results demonstrate the antibiofilm and anticancer activities of S. brevibracteata subsp. brevibracteata essential oil.

Eco-Friendly Green Synthesis and Characterization of Silver Nanoparticles by Scutellaria multicaulis Leaf Extract and Its Biological Activities

Scutellaria multicaulis is a medicinal plant indigenous to Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. It has been widely used as a prominent herb in traditional medicine for thousands of years. This plant is reported to contain baicalein, wogonin, and chrysin flavonoids, which are a significant group of chemical ingredients which can cure different diseases, such as breast cancer. S. multicaulis leaf extract was used for the bioreduction of silver nanoparticles (SmL-Ag-NPs), and their phytochemical contents and antioxidant, antibacterial, anti-proliferative, and apoptotic activity were evaluated. Optimal physicochemical properties of SmL-Ag-NPs were obtained by mixing 5% of leaf extract and 2 mM of aqueous AgNO₃ solution and confirmed by characterization studies including UV-visible spectrophotometry, Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FE-SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX), Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), zeta potential, Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), X-ray crystallography (XRD), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy. SmL-Ag-NPs exhibited a higher content of total phenol and total flavonoid and potential antioxidant activity. SmL-Ag-NPs also demonstrated dose-dependent cytotoxicity against MDA-MB231 cell multiplication with an IC₅₀ value of 37.62 μg/mL through inducing cell apoptosis. Results show that SmL-Ag-NPs is effective at inhibiting the proliferation of MDA-MB231 cells compared to tamoxifen. This demonstrates that SmL-Ag-NPs could be a bio-friendly and safe strategy to develop new cancer therapies with a reduction in the adverse effects of chemotherapy in the near future.

Cichorium intybus bio-callus synthesized silver nanoparticles: A promising antioxidant, antibacterial and anticancer compound

Cichorium intybus, commonly called chicory, has been widely used as a coffee substitute. It display a wide range of natural compounds and medicinally uses in treatment of gastrointestinal disorders. This study synthesized silver nanoparticles (Ci-AgNPs) using C. intybus leaf-derived callus extract to evaluate phytochemical content, antibacterial, antioxidant and anti-proliferative activities against human breast cancer cells (MDA-MB231). The optimal shape, size and stability of Ci-AgNPs was confirmed using UV-visible spectrophotometry, FESEM, EDX, XRD, DLS, Zeta potential, FTIR and sp-ICP-MS studies. The antibacterial activity of Ci-AgNPs was assessed using disk diffusion method against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, and they displayed distinct zones of inhibition. Colorimetric phytochemical analysis of Ci-AgNPs revealed their higher total phenolic (TP) and total flavonoid (TF) content. Ci-AgNPs also indicated a high level of antioxidant activity using FRAP and DPPH assays. The Ci-AgNPs were investigated for their anticancer activities on the cancerous MDA-MB231 cells viability and apoptosis using MTT and flow cytometry, respectively. Ci-AgNPs showed dose dependent cytotoxicity against MDA-MB231 cells with IC50 value of 187.6 μg/mL at 48 h through induction of apoptosis. The biocompatibility test showed that Ci-AgNPs induced neglectable cytotoxicity (lower than 3 %) toward human erythrocytes. This is the first study that reports the bio-callus mediated synthesis of silver nanoparticle using C. intybus callus extract which provided a promising anticancer activity against human breast cancer MDA-MB231 cells and therefore could be used as an alternative and interesting benign strategy for biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles useful in cancer therapy.

Green synthesized Ag-nanoparticles using Scutellaria multicaulis stem extract and their selective cytotoxicity against breast cancer

Scutellaria multicaulis is a medicinal herb which has been extensively prescribed in Iranian traditional medicine for treatment of infections, constipation, wounds, and also as medication for anxiety. To evaluate biological activities of biosynthesized silver nanoparticles, silver nanoparticles (Sm-AgNPs) were synthesized using S. multicaulis extract as capping and reducing agent. Characterization studies using UV-vis, XRD, DLS, Zeta potential, FESEM, EDX, TEM, FTIR, RAMAN and TGA assays indicated that Sm-AgNPs had optimal shape, size (∼60 nm) and stability (-46.4 mV) to be used as a drug. Findings also demonstrated that Sm-AgNPs display higher Total Phenolics and Total Flavonoids Content and possesses higher antioxidant activity. HPLC-MSⁿ analysis of constituents in the S. multicaulis stem extract and Sm-AgNPs-free supernatant in negative ion mode showed that flavonoids, mainly jaceidin, skullcapflavon II, wogonin, oroxylin A and dihydroxy, trimethoxyflavone from extract have contributed to the synthesis of Sm-AgNPs. Additionally, Sm-AgNPs demonstrated effective anticarcinogenic properties on MDA-MB231 cells proliferation with IC₅₀ value of 81.2 μg/mL at 48 h by inducing cell apoptosis. Overall, results confirmed the potential role of S. multicaulis stem extract as a potential raw material for synthesis of biologically active Sm-AgNPs, for development of new antitumor agents which could be utilized to combat breast cancer.

Biomedical Applications of Scutellaria edelbergii Rech. f.: In Vitro and In Vivo Approach

In the current study, in vitro antimicrobial and antioxidant activities and in vivo anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities of Scutellaria edelbergii Rech. f. (crude extract and subfractions, i.e., n-hexane, ethyl acetate (EtOAc), chloroform, n-butanol (n-BuOH) and aqueous) were explored. Initially, extraction and fractionation of the selected medicinal plant were carried out, followed by phytochemical qualitative tests, which were mostly positive for all the extracts. EtOAc fraction possessed a significant amount of phenolic (79.2 ± 0.30 mg GAE/g) and flavonoid (84.0 ± 0.39 mg QE/g) content. The EtOAc fraction of S. edelbergii exhibited appreciable antibacterial activity against Gram-negative (Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae) strains and significant zones of inhibition were observed against Gram-positive bacterial strains (Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus). However, it was found inactive against Candida Albicans and Fusarium oxysporum fungal strains. The chloroform fraction was the most effective with an IC₅₀ value of 172 and 74 µg/mL against DPPH (1,1-Diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl) and ABTS assays, in comparison with standard ascorbic acid 59 and 63 µg/mL, respectively. Moreover, the EtOAc fraction displayed significant in vivo anti-inflammatory activity (54%) using carrageenan-induced assay and significant (55%) in vivo analgesic activity using acetic acid-induced writing assay. In addition, nine known compounds, ursolic acid (UA), ovaul (OV), oleanolic acid (OA), β-sitosterol (BS), micromeric acid (MA), taraxasterol acetate (TA), 5,3',4'-trihydroxy-7-methoxy flavone (FL-1), 5,7,4'-trihydroxy-6,3'-dimiethoxyflavone (FL-2) and 7-methoxy catechin (FL-3), were isolated from methanolic extract of S. edelbergii. These constituents have never been obtained from this source. The structures of all the isolated constituents were elucidated by spectroscopic means. In conclusion, the EtOAc fraction and all other fractions of S. edelbergii, in general, displayed a significant role as antibacterial, free radical scavenger, anti-inflammatory and analgesic agents which may be due to the presence of these constituents and other flavonoids.

Fractional analysis of dichloromethane extract of Scutellaria araxensis Grossh root and shoot by HPLC-PDA-ESI-MSn

Scutellaria araxensis is a well-known ethnobotanical herb for the treatment of various diseases in Iranian traditional medicine. In this study, dichloromethanolic fraction of partitioned methanol root and shoot extract was analysed by silica gel column chromatography, thin layer chromatography and high-performance liquid chromatography combined with photodiode-array detector, and coupled to electrospray ionization with Q-Exactive Orbitrap mass spectrometry (HPLC-PDA-ESI-MSⁿ) in positive ion mode. Metabolites were tentatively characterized by comparing their mass spectrometry spectra with those of bibliographic data. A total of 11 flavonoids were identified from different fractions. Results showed that root and shoot produced very similar flavone patterns characterized by the presence of baicalein, tricin, tenaxin I, tenaxin II, skullcapflavon II, chrysin, wogonin and isorhamnetin. Norwogonin and apigenin-7-glucoside were identified only from shoot. Remarkably, Tenaxin I, II, tricin, apigenin-7-glucoside and norwogonin were tentatively profiled as new compounds for the first time from S. araxensis formula.