Cytotoxic and antimicrobial activities of different plant part extracts of Inula oculus-christi

Abstract

Inula oculus-christi L. is a perennial species distributed in Asia, Central Europe and the Balkan Peninsula. In this study a potential cytotoxic and antimicrobial activity of ethanol extracts obtained from different parts of I. oculus-christi plants was investigated. Cytotoxic activity of extracts was determined on three tumor cell lines (HeLa, FemX and LS-174) by MTT assay. The extracts of leaves and flowers showed significant cytotoxic activity against all investigated cell lines, while rhizome, root and trunk extracts had no cytotoxic activity. The IC50 values for flower extract were 68.70 ± 2.79 μg mL-1 for HeLa cells, 88.91 ± 1.66 μg mL-1 for FemX cells and 81.46 ± 8.45 μg mL-1 for LS-174 cells, whereas the IC50 values for leaf extract were 73.69 ± 5.35 μg mL-1 for He-La cells, 71.58 ± 4.25 μg mL-1 for FemX cells and 96.37 ± 4.92 μg mL-1 for LS-174 cells. The observed cytotoxic activity could be attributed to several bioactive sesquiterpenoids and flavonoids which were more abundant in leaf and flower extracts according to LC-DAD/MS non-targeted screening. In the antimicrobial bioassays against eight bacteria and microfungi, all tested extracts exhibited higher antimicrobial activity in comparison with commercial antimicrobial agents used as control. These results indicate the possibility of application of I. oculus-christi extracts as valuable natural products in medicine, agronomy and food industry.