Profile of bioactive compounds, in vitro anticancerous and antioxidant activity of stem extracts of Sida cordata

Abstract

Sida cordata is a perennial, spreading herb that is well-known for its ethnomedicinal uses in India, Sri Lanka and other Asian countries. It is one of the most important plants in the Ayurveda and Siddha systems of medicine and is known as Raajabalaa and Bhumibalaa in Sanskrit. The present study aims to develop a profile of bioactive compounds using GC-MS analysis and evaluate their anticancer and antioxidant potential. GC-MS analysis revealed the presence of 18 compounds in the petroleum ether extract, 14 compounds in the acetone extract, 12 compounds in the ethanol extract and 6 compounds in the chloroform extract. Gamma-sitosterol is the most abundant compound found in the petroleum ether (18.48%), acetone (34.25%) and ethanol (25.17%) extracts. In the chloroform extract, 1,2-Benzenedicarboxylic acid is the most abundant compound, comprising 74.77% of the extract. The chloroform extract demonstrated significant in vitro cytotoxic activity against the HepG2 cell line, as determined by the MTT assay, with an IC50 value of 47.53 µg/mL. In vitro antioxidant potential was studied using DPPH and ABTS assays. However, the ethanol extract exhibited the highest scavenging activity, with IC50 values of 46.48 µg/mL and 94.17 µg/mL against their respective standards.