Abstract
Menyanthes trifoliata L. is a valuable medical plant found in Europe, North America, and Asia, which grows on peat bogs and swamps. It has long been used in folk medicine as a remedy for various ailments. This is the first report to demonstrate the protective antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of aqueous methanolic extracts derived from the aerial parts (MtAPV) and roots (MtRV) of in vitro grown plants on human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). It describes the influence of the tested extracts on the expression of antioxidant (HO-1, NQO1, NRF2, kEAP1, and GCLC) and inflammation-related genes (IL-1α, IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α, and IFN-γ) in cells stimulated with H2O2 or LPS, respectively. In addition, M. trifoliata extracts were found to moderately affect the growth of certain bacterial and fungal pathogens, with the strongest antibacterial effect found against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterococcus faecalis. M. trifoliata extracts demonstrated protective effects against mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and nuclear DNA (nDNA) damage caused by ROS, decreasing the numbers of mtDNA lesions in the ND1 and ND2 genes and nDNA damage in the TP53 and HPRT1 genes and reducing cleavage in PARP1- and γ-H2A.X-positive cells. The root extract of in vitro M. trifoliata (MtRV) appears to have better anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antimicrobial, and protective properties than the extract from the aerial part (MtAPV). These differences in biological properties may result from the higher content of selected phenolic compounds and betulinic acid in the MtRV than in the MtAPV extract.
Highlights
Health-promoting properties of plants have been used in the prevention and therapy of many human diseases for thousands of years
The following phenolic compounds have previously been identified in MtRV and MtAPV extracts: chlorogenic acid (177 and 258 μg/g dry weight, respectively), ellagic acid (518 and 451 μg/g dry weight, receptively), sinapinic acid (146 and 71 μg/g dry weight, respectively), syringic acid (114 μg/g dry weight and not detected, respectively), rutin (256 and 153 μg/g dry weight, respectively), and pentacyclic triterpenebetulinic acid (5437 and 395 μg/g dry weight, respectively) [8]
Our results showed that the MtRV and MtAPV extracts of M. trifoliata plants did not present any cytotoxic effect on the human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) in the tested concentrations (0-5 mg/mL) after 24-hour incubation (Figure 2)
Summary
Health-promoting properties of plants have been used in the prevention and therapy of many human diseases for thousands of years. It is well known that they synthesize a large number of metabolites which play important roles, including defense against herbivores, other plants, or pathogens, and some can be successfully used in general health care [2,3,4,5]. One such group of extremely valuable plant secondary metabolites is the polyphenols, which allow the plant to respond to stress agents. There is a need to identity rich sources of these compounds in nature and study their biological properties
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