Cytotoxic and apoptotic effects of Hypericum androsaemum on prostate adenocarcinoma (PC-3) and hepatocellular carcinoma (Hep G2) cell lines with identification of secondary metabolites by LC-HRMS

The study aims to determine the secondary metabolites of Hypericum androsaemum L. extracts by liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS), and investigate the antioxidant and cytotoxic activities of the plant. Cytotoxic activity was evaluated by MTT assay, and apoptosis induction abilities on human prostate adenocarcinoma (PC-3), and hepatocellular carcinoma (Hep G2) cell lines. Accordingly, major secondary metabolites were found as hederagenin (762 +/- 70.10 mu g/g) in the leaves dichloromethane (LD), herniarin (167 +/- 1.50 mu g/g) in fruit dichloromethane (FD), (-)-epicatechin (6538 +/- 235.36 mu g/g) in the leaves methanol (LM), (-)-epigallocatechin gallate (758 +/- 20.46 mu g/g) in the fruit methanol (FM), and caffeic acid (370 +/- 8.88 mu g/g) in the fruit water (FW), and (3313 +/- 79.51 mu g/g) in the leaves water (LW) extracts. LM exerted strong antioxidant activity in DPPH free (IC50 10.94 +/- 0.08 mu g/mL), and ABTS cation radicals scavenging (IC50 9.09 +/- 0.05 mu g/mL) activities. FM exhibited cytotoxic activity with IC50 values of 73.23 +/- 3.06 mu g/mL and 31.64 +/- 2.75 mu g/mL on PC-3 and Hep G2 cell lines, respectively. Being the richest extract in terms of quillaic acid (630 +/- 18.9 mu g/g), which is a well-known cytotoxic triterpenoid with proven apoptosis induction ability on different cells, FM extract showed apoptosis induction activity with 64.75% on PC-3 cells at 50 mu g/mL concentration. The study provides promising results about the potential of Hypericum androsaemum on cancer prevention.

Automated summary

This study aimed to determine the secondary metabolites of Hypericum androsaemum L. extracts and investigate their antioxidant and cytotoxic activities. The results showed significant effects of different extracts on apoptosis induction and antioxidant activity in cancer cells.