A Comparison of Antioxidant, Antibacterial, and Anticancer Activity of the Selected Thyme Species by Means of Hierarchical Clustering and Principal Component Analysis

Abstract

In this study, six numerical data sets are presented valid for eighteen thyme (Thymus L.) species and characterizing three biological properties of these herbs, i.e., antioxidant, antibacterial, and anticancer activity. Four data sets characterize antioxidant properties, one data set characterizes antibacterial property, and one data set characterizes anticancer activity. Antioxidant properties were measured with two free radical standards (DPPH and ABTS), two free radical scavenger standards (trolox and gallic acid), and three analytical techniques (EPR spectroscopy, ultraviolet–visible [UV–vis] spectrophotometry, and the dot blot test with bioautographic detection). Antibacterial activity was tested upon the Gram-positive Bacillus subtilis (ATCC 6633) strain, and anticancer activity was evaluated upon the human colon adenocarcinoma cells (HCT116). It was found out that the thyme extracts characterize with all three biological activities (yet with anticancer activity not very strongly pronounced) and that in quantitative terms, each activity strongly depends on the thyme species considered. An ultimate goal of this study was to investigate if any quantitatively confirmed correlation exists among these three biological activities, which might point out to a common mechanism of their action. To this effect, six sets of numerical data underwent hierarchical clustering and Principal Component Analysis. Based on the results obtained, no quantitative correlation was established among antioxidant, antibacterial, and anticancer activity of the thyme species, which seems indicative of different molecular mechanisms of these three actions.