Polyphenol Content and Biological Activities of Ruta graveolens L. and Artemisia abrotanum L. in Northern Saudi Arabia

Hosam O Elansary,Agnieszka Szopa,Halina Ekiert,Diaa O El-Ansary,Eman A Mahmoud,Paweł Kubica,Fahed A Al-Mana

doi:10.3390/pr8050531

Abstract

Natural populations of Ruta graveolens L. and Artemisia abrotanum L. in northern Saudi Arabia may be a rich source of natural polyphenols with potential biological activities. Therefore, tentative high-performance liquid chromatography–diode array detection was used to analyze the polyphenol contents of leaf extracts. R. graveolens mainly contained the phenolic acids chlorogenic acid and p-coumaric acid and the flavonoids rutoside and quercetin, whereas those of A. abrotanum mainly contained the phenolic acids isochlorogenic acid and rosmarinic acid and the flavonoid quercetin. Leaf extracts of both species showed antioxidant activities due to the presence of quercetin, chlorogenic acid, and p-coumaric acid as well as antiproliferative and cytotoxic activities against cancer cells, which may be attributed to necrotic cell accumulation during the early and late apoptotic periods. Both species also exhibited antibacterial activity, although the activity was higher in R. graveolens due to the high contents of quercetin and other polyphenols. Finally, both species exhibited antifungal activities, which were associated with specific polyphenols. This is the first study to confirm the richness of polyphenols and wide spectrum of biological activities in natural populations of R. graveolens and A. abrotanum in northern Saudi Arabia.

Highlights

Medicinal plants are rich sources of polyphenols, which have important biological activities.For instance, polyphenols may slow aging through their antioxidant activities [1] or control microorganisms growth through their antibacterial and antifungal activities [2,3]
We explored the polyphenol contents of natural populations of R. graveolens and A. abrotanum growing in northern Saudi Arabia by performing high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection (HPLC-DAD) on their leaf extracts and related these to their antioxidant, antiproliferative, cytotoxic, antibacterial, and antifungal activities to determine whether these natural populations are rich sources of secondary metabolites
Using HPLC-DAD, we identified several polyphenols in the leaf extracts, among which quercetin and isochlorogenic acid were the major components in

Summary

Introduction

Medicinal plants are rich sources of polyphenols, which have important biological activities. Polyphenols may slow aging through their antioxidant activities [1] or control microorganisms growth through their antibacterial and antifungal activities [2,3]. The antioxidant activity of polyphenols is related to their ability to scavenge free radicals, modulate metal chelation, and activate detoxification enzymes, stimulating their antioxidant mechanism [4,9,10,11,12,13,14]. The antiproliferative and apoptotic activities of polyphenols against cancer cells are attributed to the control of cell cycle arrest as well as the molecular regulation of cancer-related genes [4,9,10,11,12,13]. The fresh and dried leaves and stems of this plant can be used for cooking or decoction and tea infusion, whereas essential oils extracted from the leaves and shoots are used for several purposes in the pharmaceutical industry [15,16,17,18], such as in the treatment of inflammation and infections and as antidotes for scorpion and snake venoms [19]

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Conclusion