Phytochemical Composition of Ecballium Elaterium Extracts with Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Activities: Comparison Among Leaves, flowers and Fruits Extracts
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Arabian Journal of Chemistry (2020) 13, 3286–3300 King Saud University Arabian Journal of Chemistry www.ksu.edu.sa www.sciencedirect.com ORIGINAL ARTICLE Phytochemical composition of Ecballium elaterium extracts with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities: Comparison among leaves, flowers and fruits extracts Lynda Bourebaba a,b,*, Bienvenida Gilbert-Lo´ pez c, Naima Oukil b, Fatiha Bedjou b a Department of Experimental Biology, Faculty of Biology and Animal Science, Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Norwida 27B, 50-375 Wrocław, Poland b Laboratoire de Biotechnologie ve´ge´tale et d’Ethnobotanique, Faculte´ des Sciences de la Nature et de la Vie, Universite´ de Bejaia, 06000 Bejaia, Algeria c Foodomics Laboratory, Bioactivity and Food Analysis Department, Institute of Food Science Research – CIAL (CSIC-UAM), Campus de Cantoblanco, Calle Nicola´s Cabrera 9, 28049 Madrid, Spain Received 19 September 2018; accepted 1 November 2018 Available online 13 November 2018 KEYWORDS Abstract Ecballium elaterium (squirting cucumber) is a Mediterranean plant used in folk medicine. Ecballium elaterium; Especially fruits and fruits juice are administered for several therapeutic uses, although they can be Cucurbitacins; toxic at high doses. In the present work, a phytochemical characterization of different parts of the Flavonoids; plant, namely fruits, flowers and leaves, was made. Extracts were analyzed by liquid chromatogra- HPLC-DAD-MS/MS; phy coupled to diode array detector and mass spectrometry with triple quadrupole analyzer Anti-inflammatory activity; (HPLC-DAD-MS/MS). Only one cucurbitacin, Cuc D, was found in the three extracts, and an Antioxidant activity additional one, Cuc P, was tentatively identified for the first time in fruits extract. Additionally, sev- eral flavonoids such as rutin, narcissin and kaempferol were tentatively identified in the plant. Antioxidant activity was evaluated by DPPH, ABTS, FRAP and inhibition of human erythrocyte hemolysis mediated by AAPH. Results revealed that flowers extract was the most active one, with an EC50 of 46.01 mg/ml for DPPH and TEAC values of 489.11 and 160.97 mmol Trolox/g extract for * Corresponding author at: Department of Experimental Biology, Faculty of Biology and Animal Science, Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Norwida 27B, 50-375 Wrocław, Poland. E-mail address: [email protected] (L. Bourebaba). Peer review under responsibility of King Saud University. Production and hosting by Elsevier https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arabjc.2018.11.004 1878-5352 Ó 2018 Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Phytochemical composition of Ecballium elaterium extracts with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity 3287 ABTS and FRAP respectively; despite the protective effect of all extracts in AAPH assay was rel- atively moderated. In case of anti-inflammatory activity, all extracts were active by inhibiting heat induced protein denaturation in a non-dose dependent manner, showed protection against hypo- tonic hemolysis and reduction of mice hind paw edema, 3 h after carrageenan injection; as for pre- vious tests, flowers extract exhibited the highest percentage of inhibition (82.93%) of hind paw edema at a dose of 200 mg/kg. Therefore, E. Elaterium flowers extract showed potential antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects similar to those exerted by the fruits. Ó 2018 Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). 1. Introduction E. elaterium has been used in traditional medicine for var- ious therapeutic treatments, including liver cirrhosis, rheuma- Inflammation is part of one of the fundamental physiological tism, hemorrhoids and sinusitis (Baytop, 1999; Uslu et al., processes responsible for a large number of acute, chronic 2006), due to its anti-inflammatory properties. It was reported and degenerative diseases. An inflammatory reaction occurs that cucurbitacins D, E and B present in its juice, decreased the in response to an alteration of the tissue integrity in order to levels of direct bilirubin and total bilirubin in human plasma restore the homeostasis of the damaged tissues, by initiation (Greige-Gerges et al., 2007). Additionally, cucurbitacin D of various complex mechanisms. The uncontrolled amplifica- (Cuc D) from E. elaterium possesses antiproliferative effect tion of the inflammatory response, if it is not controlled can on the non-small cell lung cancer cell line NSCLC-N6 lead to the generation of collateral damage and sometimes (Jacquot et al., 2014). E. elaterium fruit juice has been widely the development of irreversible diseases. The research of recent studied (Greige-Gerges et al., 2007; Rencuzogullari et al., years has thus evidenced the involvement of certain chemical 2006; Uslu et al., 2006), while scarce attention has been paid processes, notably the oxidation-reduction reactions triggering to other parts of the plant, as flowers, leaves or seeds cellular oxidative stress in the pathophysiology of inflamma- (Attard and Attard, 2008). tion (Lugrin et al., 2014). Oxidative stress results from the gen- On the other hand, the activities observed in E. elaterium eration of various oxidizing chemical species mainly reactive extracts have been always attributed to the presence of cucur- oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) in bitacins, without considering the effect of other components of excess of the cellular reducing capacities, and to put it another the extract, as flavonoids. Some studies have demonstrated way, it is ‘a cellular imbalance’ between oxidants and antioxi- biological effects of plant flavonoids, including antioxidant dants in favour of the oxidants, leading to a disruption of and anti-inflammatory activities (Ahmed et al., 2005, Pietta, redox signalling and control and/or molecular damage (Sies 2000; Selloum et al., 2003, Ververidis et al., 2007; Wang and Jones, 2007). Oxidative stress conditions can modulate et al., 2014). Scarce literature of HPLC-MS analysis of E. ela- and accentuate cell death and extracellular matrix degradation terium extracts has been published (Greige-Gerges et al., 2007), due to the occurrence of biomolecular lesions that exceed any and it was focused in the detection of cucurbitacins, instead of repair capacity. Necrotic cells and damaged ECM in turn pro- in the chemical characterization of the whole extract. There- duce and release various intracellular and extracellular mole- fore, the aim of this work was to carry out a comparative study cules, acting as ‘‘alarmins” initiating inflammatory cascades of the three parts extracts of Ecballium elaterium (Leaves, through PRR recognition (Chan et al., 2012). The therapeutic Flowers and Fruits), in terms of their phytochemical composi- properties of medicinal plants derive from the characteristics tion and biological effects. Phytochemical composition of the of the bioactive secondary metabolites they contain. These sec- extracts was analyzed by HPLC-DAD-MS/MS using a triple ondary metabolites with biological activity in plants and other quadrupole analyzer. Antioxidant activity of the three extracts traditional nutrients that have a beneficial effect on human was also tested, as well as in-vitro and in-vivo anti- health are called phytochemicals (Adegbola et al., 2017). inflammatory effects. Ecballium elaterium (Cucurbitaceae) is a plant also known as a squirting cucumber, common in Mediterranean region. It has 2. Materials and methods been used in the traditional folk medicine of several Mediter- ranean countries, as Tunisia (Boukef, 1986) or Turkey (Han 2.1. Chemicals and Bulut, 2015). It produces a class of triterpenoids known as cucurbitacins, widely distributed in all cucurbit species. Cucur- Solvents used for extraction and HPLC-MS analysis were bitacins are a group of tetracyclic triterpenoids derived from the from HPLC grade ( 99%) purchased from VWR (Leuven, cucurbitane skeleton and found primarily in the Cucurbitaceae Belgium); 2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl hydrate (DPPH, family. These triterpenoids (present either in free or glycosidic 99%), ascorbic acid, Butylated hydroxyanisole form) are generally responsible for the bitter taste of the plants (BHA 98.5%), 3,5-Di-tert-4-butylhydroxytoluene that contain them, and are probably produced as a mechanism (BHT 99%), 6-hydroxy-2,5,7,8-tetramethylchroman-2-car of defense against pests (Rı´ os et al., 2005). These molecules boxylic acid (Trolox, 98%), 2,20-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazo are known to possess a wide spectrum of pharmacological activ- line-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS, 99%), a,a0-Azodiisobutyramidi ities (He et al., 2013) such as anti-cancer (Jacquot et al., 2014), nedihydrochloride (AAPH 97%), Silica gel 60 mesh, i- anti-inflammatory (Attard et al., 2005), antioxidant and antimi- Carrageenan, Human serum albumin (HSA 97%), potas- crobial (Abbassi et al., 2014) activities. sium ferricyanide (K3[Fe(CN)6]), trichloroacetic acid (TCA) 3288 L. Bourebaba et al. and ferric chloride (FeCl3) were purchased from Sigma- at three wavelengths, 230, 254 and 320 nm. Additionally, it Aldrich (Germany). Diclofenac and Indomethacin were recorded the spectra from 200 to 700 nm. Column and obtained in a local drugstore. Distilled water was deionized autosampler compartments were thermostated at 30 °C and