Search

Lunaria annua is an underexplored crop with promising potential for use in various industries: food, oil etc. It grows rapidly, has low maintenance and high resistance to pathogens, which makes it a promising crop for sustainable cultivation. Herein, we investigated nutritional value, phenolic profile, and bioactive properties of L. annua seeds collected in the wild. The results we obtained indicate that seeds of L. annua have high energy value (406.6 kcal/100 g dw), with high share of carbohydrates (65.2 g/100 g dw), followed by proteins (26.47 g/100 g dw) and fat (4.46 g/100 g dw). Free sugar analysis showed presence of fructose, glucose and sucrose (0.77 g, 0.189 g and 3.85 g/100 g dw, respectively). Oxalic and malic acid were quantified <1.0 g/100 g dw and fumaric acid only in trace. Monounsaturated fatty acids were predominant over polyunsaturated and saturated fatty acids (erucic, nervonic and oleic acid were dominant). The content of flavonoid compounds was several times higher than the content of phenolic acids (58.5 vs 9.4 mg/g). Methanolic extract showed better antioxidant potential than dichloromethane extract (EC 50  = 0.32 vs. 1.25 mg/mL, in TBARS test). The antibacterial activity ranged from 0.50 to 2.00 mg/mL, with E. coli showing the highest susceptibility to the methanolic extract (MIC: 0.25 mg/mL, MBC: 0.50 mg/mL). The other tested microorganisms showed quite uniform susceptibility to the extracts, but better than the positive controls E211 and E224. The tested samples demonstrated encouraging antifungal/anticandidal properties, and no cytotoxic effects onto spontaneously immortalized keratinocytes cell line HaCaT, indicating its safe application in terms of dermal exposure. Overall, our results indicate that L. annua seeds may be considered as source of compounds used in food and pharmaceutical industry and a candidate for functional ingredient that provides additional health benefits beyond basic nutritional requirements., Competing Interests: The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Corresponding author Dejan Stojković serves as Associate Editor of the journal Heliyon. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Background/objectives: Cotinus coggygria Scop. is traditionally used for treatment of various gastrointestinal ailments. In this study, we investigated the phytochemical profile and biological activities of leaves, bark and flowers extracts of C. coggygria. Methods: Phytochemical analysis was performed using HPLC. The antimicrobial activity of water and methanolic extracts of C. coggygria leaves, bark and flowers towards various oral fungal and bacterial strains of clinical origin was tested by use of a microdilution assay. Additionally, their cytotoxic activity was determined against different gastrointestinal carcinoma cell lines (CAL27, FaDu, SW480, HCT116 and MRC-5) in concentrations ranging from 3.125 to 400 µg/mL for 48 and 72 h., Results: The presence of numerous flavonoid and phenolic compounds such as sulfuretin, gallic acid, rutin, hyperoside, and isoquercitrine was detected. Micrococcus luteus , Streptococcus parasanguinis , and Candida tropicalis were the most sensitive microbiological species, with MICs of 0.12 mg/mL for the most effective extracts. Additionally, the cytotoxic activity of the samples against different gastrointestinal carcinoma cell lines (CAL27, FaDu, SW480, HCT116, and MRC-5) was determined in concentrations ranging from 3.125 to 400 µg/mL. Among the tested samples, the methanolic leaf extract exhibited the highest cytotoxic capacity, and the possible mechanism could be related to its inhibitory effect on the release of proinflammatory cytokine in CD4+ cells., Conclusions: The traditional use of C. coggygria for gastrointestinal diseases may be substantiated by its ability to inhibit the growth of harmful microorganisms and its promising cytotoxic properties. The methanolic leaf and flower extracts show significant potential for future clinical applications, and further studies are warranted to explore their mechanisms and applications in medical treatments.

Alhagi persarum (AP), Alhagi persarum flowers (APF), Ephedra equisetina (EE) and Glycyrrhiza glabra root (GGR) have been utilized in Central Asian folk medicine for centuries. In the present study, antioxidant, enzyme inhibition, antimicrobial and cytotoxic effects the aqueous extracts of these plants were studied. In addition, 23 compounds were identified in the extracts using UHPLC-DAD-QqQ-MS/MS analysis. The four plant samples demonstrated promising antioxidant activities in vitro for scavenging of 2, 20-azinobis-(3-ethylbenz-thiazoline-6-sulphonate) radical (ABTS), 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical (DPPH), and total reducing power. AP (DPPH: 47.39 mg TE/g; ABTS:108.58 mg TE/g; CUPRAC: 117.41 mg TE/g; FRAP: 82.22 mg TE/g) and EE (DPPH: 46.75 mg TE/g; ABTS: 110.51 mg TE/g; CUPRAC: 140.77 mg TE/g; FRAP: 91.00 mg TE/g) displayed the strongest antiradical and reduction abilities in the test system. In terms of enzyme inhibition efficacy, AP and EE showed higher bioactivity. Aqueous extracts demonstrated the most potent efficacy against eight different bacterial and fungal strains in antibacterial (MIC values: 1.5-4 mg/ml) and antifungal (MIC values: 1-8 mg/ml) testing. Contrary to other activities, these aqueous extracts did not show cytotoxic effects against HaCaT cells. All bioactivities suggested that the plants could be utilized as candidate resources in the food and pharmaceutical industries., (© 2024 Wiley-VHCA AG, Zurich, Switzerland.)