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Μελέτη της αντιοξειδωτικής και αντιφλεγμονώδους δράσης φυσικών προϊόντων και παραγώγων τους - Helichrysum italicum (Bachelor thesis)

Παπακωνσταντίνου, Ευαγγελία

Natural products and their derivatives have been effective in the past and continue to be important pharmaceutical sources. Due to the richness of their phytochemicals and their unique properties, they are of great research and therapeutic interest. By studying the cellular processes, such as oxidative stress and inflammation, efforts are being made by the scientific community to find ways to deal with their negative effects on human health. In addition to the benefits of free radicals in an organism, they can also be harmful when they are highly concentrated and can be associated with inflammatory pathways. Some of the properties that characterize the plant Helichrysum italicum, known by the greek name Elichrysos or Amarantos, are the antioxidant and the anti-inflammatory. In the context of this thesis, aqueous extracts of H. italicum, originating from the cultivation of Alexandroupolis, were studied for these two properties. The extracts were prepared in three different concentrations (10, 5 and 2.5 mg/ml) and in four boiling time periods (1, 3, 5 and 7 minutes). The total phenolic and flavonoid content of the extracts were also determined and the cell viability or cytotoxicity of these samples was examined in the HaCaT and Raw 264.7 cell lines. The results of the DPPH method showed significant antioxidant activity at the concentration of 10 mg/ml at all boiling times, in contrast to the ABTS method where the antioxidant activity was shown by the concentration of 2.5 mg/ml. Also, the highest concentrations in phenolic compounds and flavonoids were presented at the 10 mg/ml samples, with higher values observed in phenolic compounds compared to flavonoids. Accordingly, the anti-inflammatory activity was observed only at the concentration of 10 mg/ml, at all boiling times of the extracts. Finally, the rates of cell viability at the concentrations of 0.1 and 0.05 mg/ml, examined in the two cell lines, were relatively low. To conclude, the 10 mg/ml of the Helichrysum italicum extracts show quite significant antioxidant activity in relation to the anti-inflammatory one. However, the low viability rates of the HaCaT and Raw 264.7 cell lines, at the concentrations of 0.1 and 0.05 mg/ml, reinforce the need for further studies to consider the samples safe at the cellular level.