Browsing by Author "Dall'Acqua, Stefano"

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Citation - WoS: 12
Citation - Scopus: 14
Gathering Scientific Evidence for a New Bioactive Natural Ingredient: the Combination Between Chemical Profiles and Biological Activities of Flueggea Virosa Extracts
(Elsevier, 2022) Zengin, Gokhan; Acqua, Stefano Dall'; Sinan, Kouadio Ibrahime; Uba, Abdullahi Ibrahim; Sut, Stefania; Peron, Gregorio; Etienne, Ouattara Katinan; Mahomoodally, Mohamad Fawzi; Dall'Acqua, Stefano
Flueggea virosa (Roxb. ex Willd.) Royle is a plant with several traditional uses in tropical countries. To study the potential usefulness, extracts from stem barks and leaves of F. virosa were obtained with different solvents. The phytochemical composition was assessed using LC-MS and NMR. Triterpenes, as oleanolic (0.05-88.09 mg/g extract), and ursolic (0.03-94.36 mg/g extract) acids were determined. In addition, ellagic and gallic acid de-rivatives were present in large concentrations in some of the extracts. Antioxidant (radical scavenging, reduction ability, and metal chelating) and enzyme inhibitory (cholinesterase, tyrosinase, amylase, and glucosidase) effects were assessed by in vitro chemical assays. The methanol extracts and infusions from both parts show higher antioxidant ability when compared with ethyl acetate extracts, and the antioxidant capacity was correlated with the total phenolic contents of the tested extracts. The extracts demonstrate enzyme inhibitory abilities on AChE and BChE, and multivariate approaches allowed for correlating the activities with the presence of triterpenoids (R > 0.8). Furthermore, molecular docking was used to get insights into the interactions between the triterpe-noids and the tested enzymes. Together, these results indicate that F. virosa represents a significant source of naturally-occurring bioactive compounds that can be exploited as a new ingredient for the development of novel functional products with promising biological properties.
Citation - WoS: 12
Citation - Scopus: 12
A Multifunctional Key To Open a New Window on the Path To Natural Resources-Lessons From a Study on Chemical Composition and Biological Capability of Paeonia Mascula L. From Turkey
(Elsevier, 2023) Kurt-Celep, Inci; Zengin, Gokhan; Celep, Engin; Dall'Acqua, Stefano; Sut, Stefania; Ferrase, Irene; Ak, Gunes; Mahomoodally, Mohamad Fawzi
The genus Paeonia has gained great interest from the scientific community for exploration as a source of bioactive compounds. The current work focused on the chemical characterisation and biological properties of Paeonia mascula L. from Turkey. The chemical characterisation of the extracts was analysed by LC-DAD-ESI and LC-APCI-MS. The anti-oxidant, enzyme inhibitory and anticancer properties were evaluated in vitro. The methanol extract was the most effective as antioxidant, metal chelator and was the most effective inhibitor of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and tyrosinase. The chloroform extract showed highest inhibition of butrylcholinesterase (BChE) and amylase. Ethyl ac-etate extract displayed glucosidase inhibition. The most abundant compounds were hexagalloyl glucose, penta galloyl glucose, gallic acid, tetragalloyl glucose, paeoniflorin and the most abundant flavonoid was quercetin-3-O-glucoside. beta-sitosterol was the most abundant phytosterol. The anticancer effect of P. mascula was evaluated by using HELA cells evaluating different pathways. The possible inhibition effect of P. mascula on the reactive oxygen species (ROS) pathway was controlled by performing the advanced glycation end product (AGE). To determine the effect of P. mascula on active molecular pathways in the HELA cancer cell line, the levels of Phospho-NF-K beta p65, AGE receptor RAGE protein, antiapoptotic BCL-2, proapoptotic BAX and P-53 proteins were checked, respectively. Phospho-NF-K beta p65, RAGE and BCL-2, which are both ROS inducers and play an active role in cancer prognosis, were found to have decreased levels after the application of P. mascula. Our findings provide a scientific basis for Paeonia mascula, which may serve as a source of naturally occurring bioactive compounds for healthpromoting applications.