Metabolite profiling and anti-cancer activity of two medicinally important Euphorbia species

Abstract

Background

Euphorbia thymifolia L. and Euphorbia hirta L. are two medicinally important species used in Ayurveda and are known as Laghudugdhika and Dugdhika respectively. This study was carried out to evaluate the comparative metabolite profiling and anti-cancer activity of E. thymifolia and E. hirta. Chemical profiling was done by High Performance Thin Layer Chromatography (HPTLC) and quantitative estimations of a major class of phytochemicals were done using specified spectrophotometric methods. Detailed metabolite profiling was done by tandem mass spectroscopic evaluation by Q-TOF-LC-MS/MS analysis. Anticancer activity was evaluated using Ehrlich Ascites Carcinoma (EAC) model in mice with 5-fluorouracil as standard.

Results

HPTLC profile showed that most of the chemical contents are similar in both species. Major group of secondary metabolites such as phenolics, flavonoids and sterols were found to be in equal concentration in both species. LC/MS analysis and data processing based on the molecular ion fragmentation pattern led to the identification of 44 compounds from the selected species. Pharmacological evaluation showed that both species possess anti-cancer activity against ascites carcinoma in mice model, however, E. hirta showed a significant dose dependent anticancer activity against EAC induced periotoneal ascites in mice.

Conclusion

The study concluded that the selectd species comparised of variety of active phytoconstrtiuents with anti-cancer properties.