Investigation of the biological effects of some aquatic macrophytes (Pistia stratiotes, Lemna minor and Myriophyllum spicatum)

In this thesis, the antioxidant, antimicrobial and anticarcinogenic activities of Lemna minor, Pistia stratiotes and Myriophyllum spicatum macrophytes, which do not have much scientific data on their biological activities, were investigated. In GC-MS analysis, it was determined that all plants contained hexanal, 1-dodecene, (E)-5 tetradecene, cetene, hexahydropharmecyl acetone, 2,4-di-tert-butylphenol and phytol compounds. The highest phenolic content was found in M. spicatum as 79.70 mg GAE/g, followed by Pistia stratiotes (leaf), Lemna minor and Pistia stratiotes (root) extracts (79.70-25.01-20.44 and 20.44), respectively. 15.79 mg/GAE g). It has been observed that M. spicatum extract can scavenge DPPH radical by 80%. IC50 values were respectively M. spicatum > L. minor > P. stratiotes (leaf) > P. stratiotes (root); It was found to be 55.88- 159.08- 405.73- 2183.41 µg/ml. The highest iron chelation was detected in P. stratiotes with 96% (leaf) and 92% (root). The plant with the highest amount of β-carotene and lycopene was determined as L. minor (β-carotene: 0.116 mg/100 ml, lycopene: 0.091 mg/100 ml). In the MIC study, it was determined that 250-500 µg/ml concentrations caused inhibition in all pathogens. In the agar diffusion method the highest inhibition was found in M. spicatum (S. aureus ATCC 25922, S. aureus MRSA, L. monocytogenes, K. pneumoniae, S. infantis and S. typhimurium) and in P. stratiotes (root) (E. coli, P. aeruginosa and C. albicans). In the cancer study conducted with bone cancer (Saos-2) and healthy fibroblast (HUVEC) cells, it was determined that all plants were cytotoxic on bone cancer and harmless in healthy cells. The highest cyotoxicty was seen in the P. stratiotes root extract with approximately 82% inhibition. In the apoptosis study performed with real time PCR, no significant changes were found in bax, blc2, caspase3, and caspase8 expressions in macrophytes other than M. spicatum.