Biological and Phytochemical Screening of Eremostachys azerbaijanica Rech.f. Aerial Parts

Abstract

Background: Eremostachys azerbaijanica rech.f. is an endemic species with an anti-inflammatory effect in Iranian folk medicine. Objectives: The aerial part extracts of Eremostachys azerbaijanica were investigated for their general toxicity, antibacterial and anti-proliferative activities. Moreover, preliminary phytochemical investigations were carried out on the extracts. Methods: Brine shrimp lethality test was performed to evaluate general toxicity. Anti-proliferative and anti-bacterial activities were evaluated by (3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) and disc diffusion methods. Additionally, all the extracts were tested for the presence of various phytoconstituents by different reagents. Results: In our research, the n-Hexane extract situated the greatest active part in the brine shrimp lethality test, whereas methanol (MeOH) extract didn’t show substantial effect. MTT assay was carried out on one normal cell line and 2 cancer cell lines including the human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC), the human colon adenocarcinoma (HT29), and the human lung carcinoma (A549), respectively. The end results indicated that the n-Hexane and dichloromethane (DCM) extracts possessed potent anti-proliferative effects against HT29 and A549 cell lines. Interestingly, none of these 3 extracts showed any important effect against HUVEC cells. As a final point, these 3 extracts didn’t have any antimicrobial activities against gram positive, gram negative, and Candida albicans species. Conclusions: n-Hexane extract had the maximum cytotoxicity against Artemia salina and A549 cells, whereas DCM extract was the most potent fraction against HT29 cell line. Preliminary phytochemical screening indicated that the DCM and n-Hexane extracts contained sterols, triterpenoids and cardiac glycosides, which might cause the observed anti-proliferative activity.