Chemical compositions, antimicrobial effects, and cytotoxicity of Asia minor wormwood (Artemisia splendens Willd.) growing in Iran

BACKGROUND

Artemisia splendens from the Asteraceae family is a new source of biologically active compounds. The current study investigated to evaluate antimicrobial and cytotoxicity activity of methanolic extracts and their fractions obtained from aerial parts by agar disk diffusion and MTT methods, respectively. The active fractions were subjected to preparative HPLC for isolating the pure compounds, which were structurally elucidated, by ¹H and ¹³C NMR.

RESULTS

The results showed that the methanolic extract and its 60% SPE fraction have the anti-proliferative activity on A549 cell line in comparison with the control group. Meanwhile, the methanolic extract and its 40% SPE fraction can inhibit the growth of Gram-positive strains as anti-microbial activity. The 60% SPE fraction also illustrated anti-proliferative activity on the HT-29 cell line compared to the control group. Chromatographic separations via preparative HPLC yielded 5 flavonoids and three flavonoid glycosides.

CONCLUSION

Based on the results it can be concluded that A. splendens as a potential source of cytotoxic and antimicrobial compounds can be used in pharmaceutics.

Eryngium Billardieri Induces Apoptosis via Bax Gene Expression in Pancreatic Cancer Cells

Purpose: Pancreatic adenocarcinoma has a high prevalence all over the world. Most of the therapeutic approaches failed as a result of tumor invasion and rapid metastasis. Several natural plants have been shown to have promising therapeutic effects. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the cytotoxic activity of Eryngium billardieri against PANC-1 cancer cell lines.

Methods: Dimethylthiazole diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay (MTT assay) and flow cytometry were used to assess the cytotoxicity of E. billardieri extracts against PANC-1 cancer cell lines. Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) was conducted to investigate the expression levels of Bcl2- associated X protein (BAX) and cyclin D1.

Results: The results of the MTT assay showed that E. billardieri extracts had cytotoxic effects on PANC- 1 cancer cell lines. Moreover, the findings from the gene expression confirmed the over expression of Bax, and under expression of cyclin D1 following treatment with dichloromethane (DCM) and n-hexane (n- hex) extracts in cancer cells (P < 0.05). Interestingly, the flow cytometry results showed that DCM and n- hex extracts of E. billardieri induced apoptosis in PANC- 1 cancer cell lines.

Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrated that DCM and n- hex extracts of E. billardieri significantly induce apoptosis by increasing Bax and decreasing cyclin D1 mRNA expression. Therefore, E. billardieri may be regarded as a novel approach for treatment of pancreatic cancer as a result of its promising apoptotic and cytotoxic properties.