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Study of the antioxidant and cytotoxic activity of extracts of the plant Satureja spinosa spp origanita (Bachelor thesis)

Μωυσιάδης, Δημήτριος/ Moysiadis, Dimitrios

Introduction: Plant extracts are widely recognized for their biological properties in vitro and in vivo. In this work, the potential antioxidant-anti-inflammatory and cytotoxic properties of extracts from the plant Satureja spinosa spp origanita, which has so far demonstrated significant antimicrobial activity, are studied. Objective: The study of the potential antioxidant and cytotoxic activity of six different extracts of the plant Satureja spinosa spp origanita. Methodology: The methods used to determine the potential cytotoxic and antioxidant activity of the six plant extracts were the MTT [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide] cell method and the nitric oxide assay using the Griess reagent, respectively. The cytotoxic activity was evaluated against HaCaT and A375 cell lines, while the antioxidant/anti-inflammatory activity was evaluated against RAW264.7 cell line. Results: The extracts that demonstrated the strongest cytotoxic activity against A375 cancer cells were butanol (46%) and dichloromethane (49%), which also exerted a dose-dependent effect, as well as petroleum ether (P.E.2) (47%). In HaCaT cells, the extracts with the strongest cytotoxic activity, at a concentration of 50 μg/mL and 100 μg/mL, were dichloromethane (8%) and butanol (10%), respectively. Furthermore, the extracts also appear to have demonstrated antioxidant/anti-inflammatory activity in RAW264.7 cells. Conclusion: The butanol and dichloromethane extracts showed the strongest cytotoxic activity in both A375 and HaCaT cells, compared to the other extracts. However, the extracts had significantly lower toxicity to normal human keratinocytes, HaCaT, indicating their selective toxicity to cancer cells. In addition, these extracts showed stronger antioxidant activity compared to the others.