Phytochemical Investigation and Biological Evaluation of Selected Medicinal Plants of Pallas valley, Kohistan

Abstract

The research interests in plant-based drug development due to the hidden potential of chemically diversified elements and their bioactive potential focused the researcher’s efforts on the unexplored flora of this planet. The use of natural products to cure human ailments against deadly infections and diseases like cancer is not a new approach in this advanced era. Still, several plants are under pharmacological investigations/studies to provide new substances with particular medicinal effects. Therefore, this study evaluated the antimicrobial, antioxidant, and anticancer potential of Acer cappadocicum Gled, Prunus cornuta, and Quercus Semecarpifolia, along with phytochemical analysis through various biochemical tests. Plant extracts were prepared through the maceration method with organic solvents of different polarities. The extracts were subjected to antimicrobial appraisal through the agar well method against Kelabsiella pneumoniae, Escherichia coli, Bacilus subtilis, Salmonella enterica, and Acinetobacter baumannii. DPPH method was used to study antioxidant potential and to evaluate the anticancer effect of extracts MTS assay was used, and percentage cell viabilities were determined. The extracts' anticancer potential was studied against five cancer cell lines: HepG2, Caco-2, A549, MDA-MB-321, and NCI-H1437. Furthermore, toxicity studies were performed on alveolar and renal primary epithelial cells. The results showed that methanolic and butanolic extracts of A. cappadocicum gled. showed maximum antibacterial activity. A similar pattern against mycelial growth inhibition in plant-fungal pathogen by methanolic and butanolic extracts of Acer cappadocicum gled. However, human pathogenic fungi were not affected much by extracts, and only Rozae sp. showed moderate inhibition. For antioxidant assessment, results indicate that chloroform extracts of A. cappadocicum gled showed the strongest scavenging potential among extracts and cytotoxic evaluation. A.cappodocicum extracts exhibited significant (p=0.05) cytotoxic activity against A549, Caco2, and MDA-MB-231 cancerous cells. The results suggested the maximum activity obtained by n-hexane extract of P. cornuta against A. baumanni, S. enterica, and E. coli isolates followed by butanolic extract of P. cornuta against A. baumanni and S. enterica isolates. The results showed that P. cornuta reduced cell viability in the lung (A549) and breast (MDA-MB-231) cancerous cells. The extracts affected less in caco2 cells compared to other investigated species. The evaluation of the antibacterial potential of Q. semicarpifolia was maximum with DRSML QAU XII methanolic extracts in all five strains and with butanolic extracts against A. baumanni and K. pneaumonia bacterial isolates. The Quercus semicarpifolia extracts performed well in Caco2 and MDA-MB-231 cancerous cells and reduced cell viability to 25% and 20%, respectively. The IC50 values demonstrated that the chloroform extract of A. cappadocicum, chloroform extract of P.cornuta, and methanolic extract of Q. Semicarpifolia showed potent antioxidant potential with 0.3795,0.4885 and 0.4003, respectively. The results suggested that the selected plants can be further assessed to treat bacterial infections and cancer disease with pharmacological and phytochemical perspectives. Among the selected plants, the inhibitory effect of Acer cappadocicum Gled extracts, good scavenging ability, and low cell viability of extracts against human cancer cell lines suggested that Acer cappadocicum Gled can be a potential material for natural product research