Botanical Therapeutics: Phytochemical Screening and Biological Assessment of Chamomile, Parsley and Celery Extracts against A375 Human Melanoma and Dendritic Cells.

Corina Danciu,Cristina Dehelean,Camelia Oprean,Ersilia Alexa,Monica Hancianu,Virgil Paunescu,Istvan Zupko,Oana Cioanca,Anja Schwiebs,Andrea Bor,Heinfried Radeke,Florina Bojin,Codruta Soica

doi:10.3390/ijms19113624

Abstract

Chamomile, parsley, and celery represent major botanical sources of apigenin, a well-known flavone with chemopreventive properties. The aim of this study was to assess the phytochemical composition, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory potential of methanol extracts obtained from chamomile, parsley, and celery collected from Romania, as well as the biological activity against A375 human melanoma and human dendritic cells. Results have shown that all three extracts are rich in polyphenolic compounds and flavonoids, and they generate a radical scavenger capacity, iron chelation potential, as well as lipoxygenase inhibition capacity. Chamomile and celery extracts present weak antiproliferative and pro-apoptotic properties in the set experimental conditions, while parsley extract draws out significant pro-apoptotic potential against A375 human melanoma cells. Parsley and chamomile extracts affected the fibroblast-like morphology of the screened tumor cell line. On the other hand, chamomile and celery extracts abrogated the expansion of LPS-activated dendritic cells, while the metabolic activity was attenuated by stimulation with celery extract; chamomile and parsley extracts had no effect upon this parameter. Chamomile and parsley extracts incubation with naive dendritic cells did not trigger cytokine secretion (TNF-alpha, IL-6, IL-10), but celery extract stimulation significantly reduced the anti-inflammatory, cytokine IL-10.

Highlights

Natural products, in the form of different types of plant extracts or as pure active phytochemicals, have historically been known to offer important therapeutic support for both traditional and well-established medical approaches
Parsley (Petroselinum crispum var. radicosum Miller) and celery (Apium graveolens var. radicosum L.) seeds were purchased from specialized providers, and their batch numbers were given to the voucher specimens which are currently kept along with the chamomile specimen
The phytochemical analysis showed that chamomile, parsley, and celery methanol extracts contain natural compounds that belong to the polyphenolic acids and flavone groups

Summary

Introduction

In the form of different types of plant extracts or as pure active phytochemicals, have historically been known to offer important therapeutic support for both traditional and well-established medical approaches. We can outline that natural products, together with their chemical derivatives, count more than half of the FDA-approved medication and continue to be important sources for the discovery of active drugs [3]. In the field of oncology, but , molecules derived from natural sources represent a huge contribution to drug discovery today. It is worth mentioning that a screening of the number of chemotherapeutic agents, in relation to their source, concludes that over 60% of approved drugs are derived from natural molecules. Research in the field has assigned apigenin both in vitro and in vivo antiproliferative, pro-apoptotic, and anti-metastatic effects in experimental models of melanoma [10,11,12]

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