Assessment of antioxidant, antiproliferative, anti-inflammatory, and enzyme inhibition activities and UPLC-MS phenolic determination of Ficus carica latex

Abstract

The aim of the present investigation consisted in evaluating the antioxidant, cytotoxicity and anti˗inflammatory activities of Ficus carica L. latex of three cultivars (Aberkane “ABR,” Aghanime “AGH”, and EL-bakour “ELB”) and evaluating their in vitro inhibition abilities for several enzymes as well as UPLC˗MS analysis for compound identification. The antioxidant activity was evaluated by ORAC assay, the anti˗inflammatory property was measured using xanthine oxidase test, enzymatic inhibition was performed against acetylcholinesterase (AChE), tyrosinase (TYR), α-glucosidase (α-GLU), and lipase, and the cytotoxicity was tested using four cell lines (CCK˗45 SK, HepG˗2, MCF˗7, and HCT˗116). The results revealed that the latex of cultivar ABR exhibited the highest ORAC (450.30 ± 7.67μmol TE/g) and anti˗inflammatory activities (IC50533 ± 20 µg/mL). This extract also showed the best inhibitory activity on acetylcholinesterase and tyrosinase enzymes (64.65% and 58.88%, respectively). This was mostly related to the high levels and diversified composition of phenolics revealed by UPLC˗MS (rutin, luteolin, quercetin, and chlorogenic acid). Otherwise, the latex of AGH cultivar had a high caffeic acid level and exhibited the highest α˗glucosidase inhibitory activity (53.09%), and the latex of ELB was the less active. The cytotoxic activity demonstrated that the latex of ABR cultivar was the most cytotoxic to hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2 and breast cancer MCF˗7 cell lines, while AGH latex was more cytotoxic against both HepG2 and colorectal HCT˗116 cell lines. Alternatively, ELB extract was the most cytotoxic to the fibroblastic CCD˗45 SK cell line. The principal component analysis allowed separation between analyzed latexes in the function of their phenolic composition and biological activities with distinguishing the latex of ABR cultivar as the more potent, followed by that of AGH, and then ELB one.