Investigation of the Biological Activities of Alcea calvertii

Herbs are widely used in the treatment of diseases as colds, infections, and cancer. In this work, we evaluate Alcea calvertii, which is a perennial herbaceous plant belonging to the Malvaceae family. It spreads in Anatolia and Mediterranean region and has important uses in terms of ethnobotany. In this study, it was aimed to evaluate the cytotoxic potentials and to investigate the antioxidant activities of methanol, water, chloroform, and ethyl acetate extracts of the aerial parts of Alcea calvertii. For that, the antioxidant activity of Alcea calvertii was determined by four antioxidant power (FRAP), copper reducing antioxidant capacity (CUPRAC) and 2,2-diphenylpicrylhydrazil (DPPH) radical scavenging activity. The cytotoxicity potential of extracts was assessed in the human lung cancer cell line (A549) by MTT assay. It was observed that the highest antioxidant activity was in the methanol extract and the antioxidant activity increased with increasing extract concentration; The TPC values were between 62.5 - 414.6 GAE mu g mL-1, the FRAP values were between 115.7 - 1321.4 mu M Trolox equivalent g-1, CUPRAC values were between 177.1 1321.4 mu M Trolox equivalent g-1, and IC50 values in DPPH caused cytotoxicity in a concentration dependent manner, the IC50 developing new drugs.

Automated summary

This study evaluated the antioxidant activity and cytotoxic potential of Alcea calvertii. The methanol extract of Alcea calvertii exhibited the highest antioxidant activity, and the antioxidant activity increased with increasing extract concentration. The IC50 values of DPPH in Alcea calvertii showed concentration-dependent cytotoxicity.