Phenolic Profile with Biological Activities Assessment of Ethanolic and Aqueous Extracts from Ephedra alata

• Published in: Chemistry Africa Vol. 7; no. 5; pp. 2495 - 2506
• Main Authors: Dbeibia, Amal, Emhemmed, Fathi, Bahia, Wael, Amri, Zahra, Mahdhi, Abdelkarim, Znati, Mansour, Mzoughi, Ridha, Jannet, Hichem Ben, Muller, Christian D., Jabeur, Chédia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.07.2024
• Subjects: Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Chemistry/Food Science; Inorganic Chemistry; Organometallic Chemistry; Original Article; Flow Cytometry; Colon Carcinoma SW-620; Pro-apoptotic; Pancreatic Carcinoma AsPC-1; Antioxidant; Hematopoietic Monocytic THP-1; Anti-inflammatory
• ISSN: 2522-5758; 2522-5766
• DOI: 10.1007/s42250-024-00940-3

Ephedra alata aerial parts are often used in Tunisian traditional medicine, especially patients with cancer. The current paper highlights, for the first time, the pro-apoptotic properties of its aqueous and ethanolic extracts on leukemic, colon and pancreatic cancers. Furthermore, their anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities were evaluated. Both extracts phenolic profile’s was assessed by HPLC analysis. A total of eight and seven compounds respectively in ethanolic and aqueous extracts, were identified as tyrosol (31.86–50.17%) followed by catechin (9.26–10.52%) and syringic (6.94–17.06%), coumaric (10.20-13.56%) and para-hydroxybenzoic (5.67–13.48%) acids as main constituents. Caffeic acid was found only in the ethanolic extract (9.56%). The β-carotene bleaching test and ferric reducing power assay were used to evaluate the antioxidant activity. Both extracts displayed antioxidant potency. The strong antioxidant abilities (i.e. IC 50  = 0.023 ± 0.003 mg/mL and EC 50  = 0.157 mg/mL for β-carotene bleaching test and ferric reducing power assay, respectively) were recorded in aqueous extract. In vitro anti-inflammatory activity was assessed by flow cytometry by following TNF-α production after lipopolysaccharide challenge of THP-1 cells. The results show that both extracts have the ability to inhibit significantly the TNF-α secretion. An effect more pronounced for the ethanolic extract. The pro-apoptotic potency of the extracts was estimated using viable and apoptotic markers assessed by flow cytometric. Here, both extracts, especially the ethanolic one, showed a noticeable stronger pro-apoptotic effect on all three tested human cancer cell lines (monocytic, colon and pancreatic carcinoma). Such promising anti-inflammatory and anticancer properties of both extracts are certainly related to their richness in tyrosol, catechin and various phenolic acids present in Ephedra alata aerial parts.