Investigation of phytochemical and biological activity of scorzonera aucherana

In this study, Scorzonera aucheriana, one of the endemic plant species to our country, was examined in terms of phytochemical and biological activity. Hexane, dichloromethane, methanol and water extracts of the plant were obtained, and each extract was tested for antioxidant and antiproliferative activity. Following the biological activity tests, chromatographic processes were carried out for the isolation of secondary metabolites from the extract with the strongest effect. As a result of studies conducted with plant extracts, it was determined that methanol extract had the strongest effect among all extracts in terms of scavenging DPPH and ABTS cation radicals and reducing Iron (III) ions. In antiproliferative assays using the XTT method, the extracts were tested against the HeLa, HT29 and LnCap cell lines, and among these extracts, the water extract showed the highest antiproliferative activity against HeLa cells with the lowest IC 50 value (17.16 µg/mL). In addition, it was observed that the cell line most sensitive to all extracts was HeLa cells and the most resistant to extracts was LnCap cells. As a result of chromatographic studies carried out on the methanolic extract of the plant, 5 molecules have been isolated, three of which are known (1,3-dicafeoylquinic acid, chlorogenic acid, scorzopygmaecoside) and two of which are new (scorzopygmaecoside A and aucherianoside), and their structures have been determined by spectroscopic methods. The isolated compounds were further subjected to antioxidant and antiproliferative activities. It was found that 1,3-dicafeoylquinic acid and chlorogenic acid compounds in particular exhibited strong antioxidant, while the new compounds showed relatively weak activity compared to the others. The isolated compounds were tested against A549 and MCF-7 cell lines and compound 4, scorzopygmaecoside A, was found to be the most potent antiproliferative compound among all compounds with the lowest IC 50 values of 32.08 and 37.27 µM against A549 and MCF-7 cells respectively.