Phytochemical investigation and biological activities of Sanicula europaea and Teucrium davaeanum. Isolation and identification of some constituents of Sanicula europaea and Teucrium davaeanum and evaluation of the antioxidant activity of ethanolic extracts of both plants and cytotoxic activity of some isolated compounds

Abstract

The aim of this research was to investigate the phytochemistry of two species Sanicula europaea and Teucrium davaeanum which are traditionally used in treatment of wounds. Four compounds were isolated from the 80% methanolic extract of S. europaea; bis-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (1), palmitic acid (2), rosmarinic acid (3), saniculoside N (4). Compounds 1 and 2 were isolated for the first time from this species. The structure elucidation of the isolated compounds was on the basis of 1D, 2D NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry measurements. Two compounds were isolated from the crude glycosides extract of T.davaeanum; 6 is a phenylethanoid glycoside and 8 is an iridoid glycoside, from the data available these may be new compounds for which the names davaeanuside A and davaeanuside B are proposed respectively." The total polyphenol content of S. europaea L, T. davaeanum leaves-flowers and T. davaeanum stem were found to be 5.0, 1.20 and 0.65 mg per 100 mg dried plant material respectively. A study of the antioxidant activity of the 50 % ethanol extracts of S. europaea and T. davaeanum showed that on a mg/mg basis S. europaea and T. davaeanum have approximately 5%, 8 % antioxidant capacity of Trolox respectively. A study of the cytotoxic activity of davaeanuside A (6), iridoid glycoside (7), davaeanuside B (8) and saponin compound (10) isolated from the crude glycosides extract of T. davaeanum revealed that saponin compound (10) inhibited the growth of Hela cells by 50 % at 50 μg/ml, P< 0.001, but the other compounds did not show activities against the tested cell lines at 100 μg/ml. The results of this work provide some basis for the traditional use of these species in the treatment of wounds.