Planta Med 2016; 82(S 01): S1-S381
DOI: 10.1055/s-0036-1597059
Abstracts
Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York

Analysis of impact of cytotoxic and antioxidant activities of the Jerusalem Balsams using chemometric methods

JJ Sajkowska-Kozielewicz
1   Department of Physical Chemistry, Medical University of Warsaw, Banacha 1, 02 – 097 Warsaw, Poland
,
P Kozielewicz
2   School of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, B15 2TT Birmingham, UK
,
K Makarova
1   Department of Physical Chemistry, Medical University of Warsaw, Banacha 1, 02 – 097 Warsaw, Poland
,
I Wawer
1   Department of Physical Chemistry, Medical University of Warsaw, Banacha 1, 02 – 097 Warsaw, Poland
,
K Paradowska
1   Department of Physical Chemistry, Medical University of Warsaw, Banacha 1, 02 – 097 Warsaw, Poland
› Author Affiliations
Further Information

Publication History

Publication Date:
14 December 2016 (online)

 

Among traditional herbal remedies with long-term use history the most interesting are balsams, herbal mixtures which recipes have been known for 400 years, e.g. the Jerusalem Balsam [1]. Despite their historical and medical importance, there is a lack of data from scientific studies on the profile of substances responsible for the biological activities.

The objective of this research was to determine the cytotoxic and antioxidant properties of 10 Jerusalem Balsams from European pharmaceutical market and relate the constituents and their properties using the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) [2].

Total polyphenol (TP), total flavonoid (TF) and total carotenoid (TC) contents were determined by UV-Vis spectrophotometric tests. The 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging test, using electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy, the ferric reducing ability of plasma (FRAP) assay and the fluorimetric oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) assay were employed for the assessment of antioxidant activity of 10 balsams. The cytotoxic activity was tested against cells typifying acute monocytic leukemia (THP-1).

All the balsams showed cytotoxic and antioxidant properties. In our samples we observed correlation of ORAC and DPPH assays (R 2= 0.90). The PCA was used to explore results obtained from TP, TF, TC, DPPH, ORAC and FRAP experiments. The first component (75.3%) is a combination of all parameters. The second (PCA 17.3%) explains sample variation by changes in the content of carotenoids. The third (PCA 4.5%) explains sample variation by changes in TF, TP and ORAC. According to the results of PCA we could identify pseudo-traditional balsams. These 3 principal components were correlated with the results of cytotoxic activity. These findings show that balsams present on the market under the same name exhibit different properties. Chemometric methods such as PCA help distinguish between original, multiherbal products and the fake ones.

Keywords: Balsams, PCA, cytotoxicity, antioxidants.

References:

[1] Moussaieff A, Fride E, Amarc Z, Lev E, Steinberg D, Gallily R, Mechoulam R. The Jerusalem Balsam: From the Franciscan Monastery in the old city of Jerusalem to Martindale 33. J Ethnopharmacol 2005; 101: 16 – 26

[2] Wold S, Esbensen K, Geladi P. Proceedings of the multivariate statistical workshop for geologists and geochemists principal component analysis. Chemom Intell Lab Systems 1987; 2: 37 – 52