The Hungarian flora has a great pharmacological and chemical potential. The flora of Pannonian biogeographical region differs significantly from the flora of the Mediterranean and Western European regions. Most of the distinctive species of the region are elements of the forest steppe vegetation, which has the westernmost large enclave in the Carpathian Basin. The aim of our project is the evaluation of the undiscovered medical plant potential of the Pannonian biogeographic region, and the phytochemical and pharmacological investigation of species of the inland sand, loess and dolomite vegetations typical of Hungarian flora.
The present study describes the first results of the project. n-Hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate, 50% methanol and aqueous extracts were prepared from herbs and roots of 8 selected inland sand specialist species. The 45 extracts were screened in vitro for antiproliferative activity against HeLa, MCF7 and MDA-MB-231 cells using the MTT assay. The antibacterial activities of extracts were evaluated on strains of Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Bacillus subtilis, Streptococcus pyogenes, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Streptococcus agalactiae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Moraxella catarrhalis by disc-diffusion method with determination of the values of inhibition zones.
19 of the 45 tested extracts demonstrated a substantial antiproliferative effect (at least 50% inhibition of cell proliferation) at 30 µg/mL against one or more cell lines. 15 extracts showed mild to strong (inhibition zones 7-16 mm) antimicrobial activity at 0.5 mg/disc.
Our screening study proved that the studied plants have a great pharmacological potential; six species (Tragopogon floccosus, Euphorbia segueriana, Linum hirsutum ssp. glabrescens, Alkanna tinctoria, Onosma arenaria, Silene borysthenica) are promising sources of antitumor and antibacterial agents. Our findings serve as starting points for selection of plant species for further investigation.
Acknowledgements: DR is a grantee of the János Bolyai Research Fellowship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Supported by OTKA-K109846.