Abstract
Echinacea purpurea (L.) Moench is widely known for its medicinal properties, being one of the most used medicinal plants for its immunostimulant properties. Nevertheless, there is still scarce information on its cytotoxic activity. Thus, this study aims at evaluating the cytotoxicity and antimicrobial activity of several aqueous and organic extracts of the aerial parts of this plant and chemically characterizing the obtained extracts. The analysis was performed by HPLC–DAD–ESI/MS. Fifteen compounds were identified; of these, seven were phenolic acids and eight were flavonoids. Non-polar compounds were evaluated by GC/MS, with a total of sixty-four compounds identified, and the most abundant groups were the sterols, fatty acids and long-chain hydrocarbons. The highest antimicrobial activity was exhibited by the dichloromethane, ethyl acetate, and acetone extracts. Dichloromethane and n-hexane extracts showed the highest cytotoxic activity. Therefore, they were fractionated, and the obtained fractions were also assessed for their cytotoxicity. Notwithstanding, the cytotoxicity of the extracts was superior to that of the obtained fractions, evidencing a possible synergistic effect of different compounds in the whole extracts.
Highlights
Taking advantage of the traditional ethnomedicinal application of a wide diversity of plants, they are being used as a powerful tool for disease prevention [1]
An exemplificative chromatogram of the phenolic profile recorded at 280 and 370 nm of the methanolic extract is shown in Figure 1
The work reported highlights the difference of the biological activity in the extracts of E. purpurea prepared with solvents of different polarity as well as their chemical characterization
Summary
Taking advantage of the traditional ethnomedicinal application of a wide diversity of plants, they are being used as a powerful tool for disease prevention [1]. Echinacea purpurea (L.) Moench is a perennial plant native to eastern North America that belongs to the Asteraceae family [3] This plant species is considered a safe herbal medicine, usually being used in a self-medication manner, mainly through aqueous or ethanolic extracts of the dried aerial parts or roots [4,5]. The most common phytochemicals found in E. purpurea are alkamides, polysaccharides, lipoproteins, betaine, sesquiterpenes, polyacetylene, saponins and phenolic compounds (echinacoside and other caffeic acid derivatives, and chicoric acid) [6,11,12] These classes of bioactive compounds have been described as being responsible for the mentioned biological properties. The most active extracts in terms of cytotoxic effects were fractionated by gradient elution through column chromatography on silica gel and the resulting fractions were assessed for their antiproliferative potential
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