HPLC-based cytotoxicity profiling and LC-ESIQTOF-MS/MS analysis of .

Introduction: Boiss. (Asteraceae) is an endemic plant to Iran. No reports have studied the cytotoxicity of the plant. The current study aimed to evaluate the cytotoxicity of collected from Fars province (Iran) against MCF-7 and HDF cell lines using HPLC-based activity profiling and to annotate the active constituents by LC-ESIQTOF-MS/MS.

Methods: was collected from three locations in Fars province. The dried flowers and leaves were separately extracted by percolation using methanol. The crude extracts were fractionated by liquid-liquid partitioning with dichloromethane (DCM) and aqueous methanol. The cytotoxicity of the fractions was evaluated against MCF-7 and HDF cells by Alamarblue assay. HPLC-based activity profiling was used to track the active constituents. LC-MS dereplication strategy was used for the annotation of the compounds in the active time window. LC-MS data were preprocessed by MZmine 3.3.0 and submitted to multivariate analysis to compare the differences and similarities in the metabolites of the samples.

Results: The DCM fractions showed a dose-dependent cytotoxicity against the cancerous cells (IC50s, 9.8-105.1 μg/ml). In general, the metabolites of the flowers and their cytotoxicity were higher than the leaves. LCESIMS/MS analyses revealed that prenylated and geranylated α,β-unsaturated spiroketal phloroglucinols were among the active constituents.

Conclusion: It can be concluded that is a rich source of phloroglucinol derivatives with cytotoxic activities. Further phytochemical analysis is needed to characterize the bioactive components.