Pharmacognostical investigations on colchicum variegatum L.

Colchicum species, continue to be the subject of study due to the tropolone alkaloids they contain. Colchicine which is Colchicum alkaloid is still isolated from the species Colchicum autumnale L. does not grow. For this reason, the species Colchicum variegatum L. has not been studied yet was chosen as the subject of the thesis. In the study, alkaloid isolation from neutral-phenolic extracts obtained from herba and tubers of C. variegatum L., total alkaloid amont, colchicine amount and cytotoxic activity were evaluated. The alkaloids whose structures were elucidated, colchicine and colchifoline, from the neutral-phenolic extract of herba; colchicine, 2-demethylcolchicine, colchifoline were determined from the neutral-phenolic extract of the tuber. The presence of 8 phenolic acids and 14 flavonoid compounds previously known were determined in the C. variegatum L. LC-HRMS. BKP-TA64 and BKP-TA2/BKP-H2 alkaloids showed lower cytotoxic activity in PC3 and HEK293 cell lines than colchicine, and showed higher activity in MCF7 cell line than colchicine. The lowest cytotoxic activity was detected in the A extract of the tuber in all cell lines. Total alkaloid amount has determined as 3.224 % in the methanol extract of herba and 4.916 % in the methanol extract of tuber. As a result of the colchicine amount determination made by HPLC, the amount of colchicine in the methanol extract of the herba was quantitatively (w/w) 0.02 %, and the amount of colchicine in the methanol extract of tuber was determined as 0.83 %. Key Words: Colchicum variegatum L., Colchicine, Tropolone Alkaloids, High Performance Liquid Chromatography, Cytotoxic Activity