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Phytochemical, antioxidant, anti-proliferative and antimicrobial properties of Catharanthus roseus root extract, saponin-enriched and aqueous fractions

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Abstract

Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don (C. roseus) is a well-known medicinal plant for its source of alkaloids solely found in the leaves. Other parts including the root are usually discarded after the alkaloid extraction. This study sought to investigate phytochemical profiles, antioxidant, antimicrobial and cytotoxic properties of the C. roseus root extract (RE) and its two sub-fractions including saponin-enriched (SE) and aqueous (AQ) fractions. The results showed that the RE was a rich source of saponins (1744.44 mg ESE/g) and phenolics (51.27 mg GAE/g), which comprised of gallic acid (25.74 mg/g), apigenin (1.45 mg/g) and kaempferol (1.58 mg/g). The SE fraction was enriched with 31% of saponins and 63% of phenolics higher than those of the RE; whereas the concentrations of saponins and phenolics of the AQ fraction were lower than those of the RE by 40% and 74%, respectively. The content of gallic acid in the SE fraction was 1.4-fold and 1.5-fold higher than those of the RE or AQ fraction, respectively. The SE fraction demonstrated potent antioxidant capacity, which was significantly higher than the RE or AQ fraction, and also exhibited strong anti-proliferative activity against 11 cancer cell lines including A2780 (ovarian), H460 (lung), A431 (skin), MIA PaCa-2 (pancreas), Du145 (prostate), HT29 (colon), MCF-7 (breast), BE2-C (neuroblastoma), SJ-G2, U87 and SMA (glioblastoma) with low GI50 values (≤ 2.00 µg/mL). The SE fraction was also shown to effectively inhibit the growth of both bacteria (Escherichia coli, Enterobacter aerogenes and Staphylococccus lugdunensis) and fungi (Candida albicans and Aspergillus niger). These findings warrant further investigation to isolate major compounds from the SE fraction and further test their antioxidant, anticancer and antimicrobial activities.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the University of Newcastle, Australia that awarded the scholarships (UNIPRS and UNRSC 50:50) to the first author.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental and Life Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Newcastle, Brush Road, Ourimbah, NSW, 2258, Australia

    Hong Ngoc Thuy Pham, Quan Van Vuong, Michael C. Bowyer & Christopher J. Scarlett

  2. Faculty of Food Technology, Nha Trang University, No. 2 Nguyen Dinh Chieu Street, Nha Trang City, Khanh Hoa, Vietnam

    Hong Ngoc Thuy Pham

  3. Department of Medical Oncology, Calvary Mater Newcastle Hospital, Waratah, NSW, 2298, Australia

    Jennette A. Sakoff

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  1. Hong Ngoc Thuy Pham
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  2. Jennette A. Sakoff
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Pham, H.N.T., Sakoff, J.A., Vuong, Q.V. et al. Phytochemical, antioxidant, anti-proliferative and antimicrobial properties of Catharanthus roseus root extract, saponin-enriched and aqueous fractions. Mol Biol Rep 46, 3265–3273 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-019-04786-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-019-04786-8

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