Biological Activities of the Essential Oil from Erigeron floribundus.

Riccardo Petrelli,Dezemona Petrelli,Farahnaz Ranjbarian,Prosper Biapa Nya,Leonardo Sorci,Luca Vitali,Luana Quassinti,Massimo Bramucci,Loredana Cappellacci,Giulio Lupidi,Giuseppe Orsomando,Anders Hofer,Filippo Maggi

doi:10.3390/molecules21081065

Abstract

Erigeron floribundus (Asteraceae) is an herbaceous plant widely used in Cameroonian traditional medicine to treat various diseases of microbial and non-microbial origin. In the present study, we evaluated the in vitro biological activities displayed by the essential oil obtained from the aerial parts of E. floribundus, namely the antioxidant, antimicrobial and antiproliferative activities. Moreover, we investigated the inhibitory effects of E. floribundus essential oil on nicotinate mononucleotide adenylyltransferase (NadD), a promising new target for developing novel antibiotics, and Trypanosoma brucei, the protozoan parasite responsible for Human African trypanosomiasis. The essential oil composition was dominated by spathulenol (12.2%), caryophyllene oxide (12.4%) and limonene (8.8%). The E. floribundus oil showed a good activity against Staphylococcus aureus (inhibition zone diameter, IZD of 14 mm, minimum inhibitory concentration, MIC of 512 µg/mL). Interestingly, it inhibited the NadD enzyme from S. aureus (IC50 of 98 µg/mL), with no effects on mammalian orthologue enzymes. In addition, T. brucei proliferation was inhibited with IC50 values of 33.5 µg/mL with the essential oil and 5.6 µg/mL with the active component limonene. The essential oil exhibited strong cytotoxicity on HCT 116 colon carcinoma cells with an IC50 value of 14.89 µg/mL, and remarkable ferric reducing antioxidant power (tocopherol-equivalent antioxidant capacity, TEAC = 411.9 μmol·TE/g).

Highlights

Introduction(Asteraceae) is an herbaceous plant, 1.5 m in height, with pubescent, lanceolate leaves and flowers in yellowish panicles
Given the wide use of the plant in traditional medicine, we evaluated the in vitro biological activities displayed by the essential oil obtained from the aerial parts of E. floribundus, namely the antioxidant, antiproliferative and antimicrobial activities that were investigated by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid (ABTS), ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), 3-(4,5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazoliumbromide (MTT), and agar disc diffusion and microdilution methods, respectively
GC-MS analysis revealed that the essential oil had a complex chemical profile

Summary

Introduction

(Asteraceae) is an herbaceous plant, 1.5 m in height, with pubescent, lanceolate leaves and flowers in yellowish panicles. In Cameroon, it is commonly found as a weed along roadsides, and it is widely used in folk medicine to treat angina, female. Molecules 2016, 21, 1065 infertility, AIDS, dental pain, headache and various diseases of microbial and non-microbial origin [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Despite the interest in its bioactivity, the plant has received little phytochemical investigation. With regard to the essential oil, a previous work performed on Cameroonian plants showed sesquiterpene hydrocarbons as the major essential oil constituents [9]

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Discussion

Conclusion