Isolation of phytochemical constituents from Stevia rebaudiana (Bert.) and evaluation of their anticancer, antimicrobial and antioxidant properties via in vitro and in silico approaches

Most Chand Sultana Khatun; Md Abdul Muhit; Md Jamal Hossain; Muhammad Abdullah Al-Mansur; S M Abdur Rahman

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e08475

Isolation of phytochemical constituents from Stevia rebaudiana (Bert.) and evaluation of their anticancer, antimicrobial and antioxidant properties via in vitro and in silico approaches

Heliyon. 2021 Nov 26;7(12):e08475. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e08475. eCollection 2021 Dec.

Authors

Most Chand Sultana Khatun¹, Md Abdul Muhit¹, Md Jamal Hossain², Muhammad Abdullah Al-Mansur³, S M Abdur Rahman¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Dhaka, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh.
² Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Dhaka, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh.
³ Institute of National Analytical Research and Service (INARS), Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR), Dhanmondi, Dhaka 1205, Bangladesh.

Abstract

The current study was designed to isolate and characterize some bioactive secondary metabolites by using repeated chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques, targeting their anticancer, antimicrobial, and antioxidant properties through in vitro and in silico approaches. Six compounds were isolated and analyzed by thin layer chromatographic technique and the compounds were identified as 5-O-caffeoyl quinic acid (1), syringin (2), luteolin (3), apigenin (4), jhanol (5), and jhanidiol (6) based on spectroscopic methods. The cytotoxic effect of each compound was dose-dependent, and compound 1 showed a higher anti-proliferative effect (IC₅₀ = 181.3 μg/ml) than other compounds (compound 2, 4, 5, and 6). Besides, compound 1 showed the most promising antibacterial activity with a zone of inhibition ranges from 12-15 mm against different strains compared to ciprofloxacin (14-22 mm). In contrast, compound 3 exerted the highest scavenging property against DPPH free radical. Finally, the in vitro bioactivities were also supported by molecular docking studies. The computational study demonstrated that the isolated compounds exerted stronger affinity compared to the standard drugs towards the binding sites of dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR), glutathione reductase, and urase oxidase.

Keywords: Antimicrobial; Antioxidant; Cytotoxicity; Molecular docking; Phenolic constituents; Stevia rebaudiana.