Shabina Ishtiaq Ahmed1
,
Muhammad Qasim Hayat1,
Saadia Zahid2,
Muhammad Tahir1,
Qaisar Mansoor3,
Muhammad Ismail3,
Kristen Keck4,
Robert Bates5
1Department of Plant Biotechnology;
2Department of Health Biotechnology, Atta-Ur-Rahman School of Applied Biosciences (ASAB), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST);
3Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Abdul Qadeer Khan Research Laboratory (KRL) Hospital, Islamabad, Pakistan;
4Bio5 Institute;
5Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.
For correspondence:- Shabina Ahmed
Email: ahmed.phdabs04asab@asab.nust.edu.pk
Received: 17 October 2016
Accepted: 11 May 2017
Published: 29 June 2017
Citation:
Ahmed SI, Hayat MQ, Zahid S, Tahir M, Mansoor Q, Ismail M, et al.
Isolation and identification of flavonoids from anticancer and neuroprotective extracts of Trigonella foenum graecum. Trop J Pharm Res 2017; 16(6):1391-1398
doi:
10.4314/tjpr.v16i6.25
© 2017 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..
Abstract
Purpose: To evaluate the protective effects of Trigonella foenum graecum methanol and ethyl acetate extracts, against cancer cell lines and NaNO2-induced neurodegeneration in mice brain.
Methods: Adult male albino mice (n = 20) were administered NaNO2 orally at a dose of 300 mg/kg for 15 days. The control group received distilled water and normal mice feed. Experimental groups were given T. foenum graecum methanol and ethyl acetate extracts in two different doses of 100 and 200 mg/kg orally for 15 days. Histopathological examination of the brain was carried out with the aid of cresyl violet and H&E staining. In addition, the cytotoxicity of the extracts was evaluated by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazolyl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay against HCEC, MCF-7 and Hep2 cell lines. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) were used to determine the structures of the bioactive compounds.
Results: Methanol and ethyl acetate extracts of T. foenum graecum seeds inhibited neurodegeneration in the hippocampus and cortex regions of the brain when compared to control group. Moreover, the extracts exhibited anticancer activity against Hep2 and MCF-7cells and low cytotoxicity against HCEC, sparing healthy cells in-vitro. In addition, two flavonoids amurensin and cosmosiin were isolated from T. foenum graecum extracts.
Conclusion: Amurensin and cosmosiin from T. foenum extracts are reported here for the first time agents that possess significant anticancer and neuroprotective properties.
Keywords: Trigonella foenum-graecum, Anticancer, Neurodegeneration, Flavonoids, Amurensin, Cosmosiin