The roots of two cultivars of Paeonia, namely Paeonia officinalis "Rubra Plena" and Paeonia "Pink Hawaiian Coral", have been extracted with chloroform. The composition of the lipid fraction, analyzed by GC-MS technique, revealed the absence of paeonol and the presence of phenol, benzoic acid, fatty acid-and some sterol-derivatives. The chloroformic extracts have been tested on normal and several cancer cell lines but showed antiproliferative activity only on the ovarian carcinoma and the osteosarcoma. The biological activity of extracts was investigated mainly by confocal microscopy, flow cytometry and quantum phase imaging. The results indicated that the root extracts induced a hyperpolarization of mitochondria and an increase in reactive oxygen species levels, without inducing cell death. These effects are associated to an increased doubling time and a retarded confluence.
Keywords: Paeonia; QPI; ROS; cancer; mitochondria; root extraction.