Determination of Chemical Compositions, Antioxidant and Enzyme Inhibitory Activities of Naturally Growing Chenopodium album subsp. iranicum Aellen

Abstract

Chenopodium album has been used as folk medicine and nutrition for years by local people. This study aimed to investigate the phenolic compounds by Reversed Phase-High Performance Liquid Chromatography-Diode Array Detector (RP-HPLC-DAD), total phenolic content (TPC), and biological activities of the plant extracts prepared with three solvents (methanol, acetonitrile, and water) for the first time. Also, the chemical composition of essential oil and mineral content of the plant were determined by Gas Chromatography Mass-Spectrometry (GC-MS), and Inductively Coupled PlasmaOptical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES), respectively. The extracts of the plant were analyzed for the in vitro inhibitory activities against carbonic anhydrase (CA) and urease enzymes. The most abundant compound in methanol extract was catechin (157.666 mg L-1). Moreover, depending on the solvent used in the extracts, varied levels of phenolic acids such as gallic, protocatechuic, p-OH benzoic, ferulic, and syringic acids were identified. Thirty-four components were identified and methyl linolenate was found to be the main constituents of the essential oil (11.28 %). The methanol extract of the plant exhibited the best antioxidant value given as TPC 65.41±5.20 µg mL-1 GAE, FRAP 113.54±1.57 µM TEAC, DPPH• 191.1±3.55 µg mL-1 SC50, and ABTS•+ 74.7±1.55 µg mL-1 SC50, respectively. According to the mineral analyses, it was conducted that potassium and sodium were the most abundant minerals. The extracts were found as inactive against CA and showed a moderate urease inhibition effect (IC50:28.380±0.742 mg mL-1). The obtained results indicated that the plant extract could be used as an easily available natural antioxidants source for the food and pharmaceutical industry.