Abstract
BackgroundEichhornia crassipes (Mart) solms is an invasive macrophyte causing serious problems to the network of irrigation and drainage canals in the Nile Delta region. The present study aim to evaluate the potential anticancer and antioxidant activities of Eichhornia crassipes crude extract and its pure compounds.MethodsThe macrophyte was collected from El-Zomor canal, River Nile (Egypt), cleaned, air dried, grinded then extracted with methanol (crude extract). The extract was fractionated using pre-coated silica gel plates (TLC F254) with hexane/ethyl acetate (8.5: 1.5 v/v) as mobile phase. Nine fractions were separated (A-I) then scratched, eluted with the same mobile phase, filtered and the separated fractions were determined and identified using spectroscopic methods (Mass spectrum (MS), Infra red (IR) and Proton H-Nuclear magnetic resonance (H-NMR). Both the crude extract and its nine identified compounds were tested for their antioxidant (using 2, 2 diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), 2, 2′- azino-bis {ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS.)} methods) and anticancer activity (using MCF-7, HeLa, Hep.G2 and EACC cell lines).ResultsThe antioxidant and anticancer activities of the crude extract exhibited the highest effect while the compounds showed variable effects which depend on the type of compound and cancer cell line. The antioxidant activity of the crude extract exhibited the highest followed in descending order by compounds D, E, G and H respectively. Concerning the anticancer potency, the crude extract showed also the highest effect while the identified compounds (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H and I) showed variable anticancer activities against the four different cell lines. In addition, Compound I exhibited the most potent anticancer activity against HepG2 cell line while compound D exhibited high anticancer activity against HeLa cells and EACC. The results revealed the presence of different compounds (Alkaloids and terpenoids) with variable antioxidant and anticancer activities which elicited an auto-augmentation in the crude extract leading to its greatest activities. The action of the identified anticancer compounds on DNA fragmentation was studied.ConclusionThe study illustrated the potential of Eichhornia as a valuable resource for natural compounds of desirable medicinal properties (e.g. antioxidants and anticancer).
Highlights
Eichhornia crassipes (Mart) solms is an invasive macrophyte causing serious problems to the network of irrigation and drainage canals in the Nile Delta region
The more or less comparable activities of the fractionated compounds from methanolic crude extract of E. crassipes may be due to the fact that all compounds have the common fragment ions: 57, 71, 85, 149, 167
The NMR data indicated that all compounds had the following type of protons; A multiplex signal at δ 6.89-7.47 ppm was characteristic of aromatic abcdfgehi protons (Compounds active ingredients (A-I)) according to Edwards [25]; While, the singlet signal at δ 5.320 ppm was characteristic of the two protons of olifinic (CH = CH) in compound A; the singlet signal at δ 3.342 ppm was characteristic of four protons of two O-CH2 group (Compounds B, C, D, E, F and I); the singlet signal at δ 1.26, 1.6 and 2.5 ppm was characteristic of the protons of methylene (CH2) group and the singlet signal at δ 1.9 ppm was characteristic of protons of methyl (CH3) group
Summary
Eichhornia crassipes (Mart) solms is an invasive macrophyte causing serious problems to the network of irrigation and drainage canals in the Nile Delta region. The active principles of many drugs found in plants were identified from secondary metabolites [3]. Amongst these active phyto-molecules (at least 12,000) about only 10% were chemically identified [4]. Alkaloids were play an important metabolic role and control development in living systems [6]. These chemical substances were known to carry out important medicinal roles in human body. They were involved in protective function in animals and used as medicine especially the steroidal alkaloids [7]
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