-Chemical profiling and biological activity of Peperomia blanda (Jacq.) Kunth

Wafa M Al-Madhagi; Najihah Mohd Hashim; Nasser A Awad Ali; Abeer A Alhadi; Siti Nadiah Abdul Halim; Rozana Othman

doi:10.7717/peerj.4839

-Chemical profiling and biological activity of Peperomia blanda (Jacq.) Kunth

PeerJ. 2018 Jun 7:6:e4839. doi: 10.7717/peerj.4839. eCollection 2018.

Authors

Wafa M Al-Madhagi¹, Najihah Mohd Hashim^{1

2}, Nasser A Awad Ali^{3

4}, Abeer A Alhadi⁵, Siti Nadiah Abdul Halim⁶, Rozana Othman^{1

5

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
² Center of Natural Products Research and Drug Discovery (CENAR), University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
³ Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of pharmacy, Sana'a University, Sanaa, Yemen.
⁴ Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Clinical Pharmacy, Albaha University, Albaha, Kingdom of Saudia Arabia.
⁵ Drug Design and Development Research Group (DDDRG), University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
⁶ Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Abstract

Background: Peperomia belongs to the family of Piperaceae. It has different uses in folk medicine and contains rare compounds that have led to increased interest in this genus. Peperomia blanda (Jacq.) Kunth is used as an injury disinfectant by Yemeni people. In addition, the majority of Yemen's population still depend on the traditional remedy for serious diseases such as cancer, inflammation and infection. Currently, there is a deficiency of scientific evidence with regards to the medicinal plants from Yemen. Therefore, this study was performed to assess the chemical profile and in vitro antioxidant and cytotoxic activities of P. blanda.

Methods: Chemical profiling of P. blanda was carried out using gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GCMS) followed by isolation of bioactive compounds by column chromatography. DPPH• and FRAP assays were used to evaluate antioxidant activity and the MTT assay was performed to estimate the cytotoxicity activity against three cancer cell lines, namely MCF-7, HL-60 and WEHI-3, and three normal cell lines, MCF10A, WRL-68 and HDFa.

Results: X-ray crystallographic data for peperomin A is reported for the first time here and N,N'-diphenethyloxamide was isolated for the first time from Peperomia blanda. Methanol and dichloromethane extracts showed high radical scavenging activity with an IC₅₀ of 36.81 ± 0.09 µg/mL, followed by the dichloromethane extract at 61.78 ± 0.02 µg/mL, whereas the weak ferric reducing activity of P. blanda extracts ranging from 162.2 ± 0.80 to 381.5 ± 1.31 µg/mL were recorded. In addition, petroleum ether crude extract exhibited the highest cytotoxic activity against all the tested cancer cell lines with IC₅₀ values of 9.54 ± 0.30, 4.30 ± 0.90 and 5.39 ± 0.34 µg/mL, respectively. Peperomin A and the isolated mixture of phytosterol (stigmasterol and β-sitosterol) exhibited cytotoxic activity against MCF-7 and WE-HI cell lines with an IC₅₀ of (5.58 ± 0.47, 4.62 ± 0.03 µg/mL) and (8.94 ± 0.05, 9.84 ± 0.61 µg/mL), respectively, compared to a standard drug, taxol, that has IC₅₀ values of 3.56 ± 0.34 and 1.90 ± 0.9 µg/mL, respectively.

Conclusion: The activities of P. blanda extracts and isolated compounds recorded in this study underlines the potential that makes this plant a valuable source for further study on anticancer and antioxidant activities.

Keywords: DPPH; FRAP; MTT; Peperomia blanda; TPC; Yemen.

Grants and funding

The University of Malaya and Ministry of Higher Education provided a grant (HIR grant F00009-21001) to conduct this study. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.