Abstract
In traditional medicine, Cladonia lichens are used for several disorders like hypertension, headaches, dizziness, cough, and menstrual disorders. The study aimed to determine the biological activities of 70% methanol extracts of nine Cladonia species from Turkey. The chemical composition was analyzed via spectrophotometric and chromatographic (HPLC) techniques. DPPH● (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) and ABTS+● (2,2'-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) radical scavenging activities, inhibition of β-carotene/linoleic acid co-oxidation, and cytotoxicity on A549 and COLO205 cell lines were studied. Anti-inflammatory activity was assessed on the Raw 264.7 mouse macrophage cell line by determining nitric oxide (NO) levels. Among the studied Cladonia species Cladonia firma was found the most active extract in ABTS+● test system (2.58±0.07 mmol/L/Trolox) and also in the cytotoxicity and anti-inflammatory experiments. Cladonia pocillum, Cladonia rangiformis, and Cladonia foliaceae were also found to be active. Fumarprotocetraric acid amounts are between 1.89 -23.82 mg/gextract and fumarprotocetraric acid content did not show linearity with biological activities. It has been proved with this study that lichens traditionally used in treatment have as much biological activity as plants and can be evaluated in pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.
Highlights
Lichens are declared as composite organisms, consist of the symbiotic relationship between the fungus and a green alga as a photosynthetic partner (Hodkinson and Lutzoni, 2009; Selbmann et al, 2010)
The lowest fumarprotocetraric acid amount was identified in the C. rangiformis (18.89 mg gextract-1) and the highest amount was identified in C. fimbriata (232.82 mg gextract-1)
Antioxidant, cytotoxic, and anti-inflammatory activities of 70% methanol extracts of the nine Cladonia species have been evaluated in this study
Summary
Lichens are declared as composite organisms, consist of the symbiotic relationship between the fungus and a green alga (and/or cyanobacteria) as a photosynthetic partner (Hodkinson and Lutzoni, 2009; Selbmann et al, 2010). A large number of secondary metabolites, including depsides, depsidones, dibenzofurans, xanthones and terpene derivatives are produced by lichens (Molnár and Farkas, 2010). The Cladonia genus is classified within the Cladoniaceae family (Lecanorales order and Ascomycota division) and the genus contains a large number of secondary metabolites including lichenic acids, phenolic compounds consisting mainly of depsides and depsidones (Huovinen and Ahti, 1982; Miadlikowska et al, 2006; Lumbsch and Huhndorf, 2010). Extracts of Cladonia species are used in folk medicine, they have been evaluated in many studies for their biological activities (Koparal et al, 2006; Silva et al, 2010; Kosani et al, 2014; Coskun et al, 2015). Fumarprotocetraric acid, one of the depsidones of Cladonia species, has antioxidant, antitumor, antimicrobial, and different biological activities (Ramos et al, 2014)
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