Isolation and Identification of Bioactive Compounds from spp. Using HPLC-DAD and GC-MS Analysis and Their Biological Activity as Anticancer Molecules.

The genus a member of family Compositae, is widely documented as an ethno-medicinally important genus of plants. In the present study, anticancer potential of three ethno-medicinally important species i.e., , and were tested. For in-vitro evaluation, an MTT (Thiazolyl blue tetrazolium bromide) assay was performed against cervical cancer cells (HeLa), hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG), and adenocarcinoma human alveolar basal epithelial cells (A549). For in vivo evaluation, , and were used. Among all the tested extracts, the ethanol extract of appeared to have highest anticancer activity, and the compounds responsible for this activity were identified to be Tris (2,4-di--butylphenyl), 4-hydroxy-2,4'-dimethoxychalcone, and 2,4-di--butylphenol. This is the first report of the isolation of Tris (2,4-di--butylphenyl) phosphate from the genus and the first report of 4-hydroxy-2,4'-dimethoxychalcone and 2,4-di--butylphenol from . Among the isolated compounds, 4-hydroxy-2,4'-dimethoxychalcone showed the highest anticancer activity with an LD50 value of 236.7 µg/mL. Therefore, this compound carries promising potential for being established as a pharmaceutical for chemoprevention and chemotherapy.