Phytochemical analysis and biological activities of endemic astragalus dipsaceus bunge

In this study, bioassay guided isolation of secondary metabolites from endemic Astragalus dipsaceus Bunge plant was aimed. For this purpose, the whole plant was dried and extracted in a mixture of MeOH: CHCl3 (1: 1) by maceration. The crude extract was dissolved in pure water and extracted with hexane, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate, n-butanol and water, respectively. All the prepared extracts (hexane extract, dicholoromethane extract, ethylacetate extract, n-butanol extract and water extract) were investigated for the anticancer activities against C6 and HeLa cells. Ethyl acetate extract which had the highest activity was subjected to various chromatographic methods (TLC, column chromatography, etc.) and the structures of the isolated compounds were determined by spectroscopic-chromatographic methods (GC-MS, 1D-2D NMR). From this extract the cycloalpiosid-D, cycloalpiosid, and genistein molecules were detected. Then, anticancer activity tests were performed to the compounds against C6 (rat brain cancer cell) and HeLa (human cervical cancer cell) cells. 5-FU was used as a positive control. As a result of these tests, genistein exhibited the highest activity against C6 cells and Cycloalpioside showed the highest actvity against HeLa cells among the other isolated compounds and 5-FU, respectively. In addition, cycloalpioside and genistein molecules were determined to have lower toxicity than 5-FU.