Chemical constituents of the aerial parts of scoparia dulcis and anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory activities

Abstract

In Vietnam, the medicinal plant Scoparia dulcis is used for the treatment of bronchitis, gastric disorders, antidiabetes, hypertension, hepatitis etc. In this paper, experiments was designed to evaluate in vitro anticancer and anti-inflammatory activities and isolate phytochemicals from methanol extracts of Scoparia dulcis whole plants. The chemical investigation of methanol fraction of Scoparia dulcis led to the isolation of benzoxazinone (1), phenylethanoid (2), flavone (3), and lignan (4) glycosides. The bioactivity results indicated that crude ethanol and ethyl acetate extracts had potent cytotoxic activity toward the HepG2 cancer cell with IC50 of 47.03 μg/mL and 36.04 μg/mL, respectively. Interestingly, crude ethanol and ethyl acetate extracts had the NO inhibitory activity, with inhibition of 56.9 % or 74.7 % at 30 μg/mL and 97.3% or 82.9 % at 100 μg/mL, respectively. In addition, the hexane extract at concentrations of 100 μg/ml demonstrated anti-inflammatory activity through the inhibition of nitric oxide production of 76.7%.