CYTOPROTECTIVE AND ANTIINFLAMATORY ACTIVITY
EVALUATION OF SOME PELARGONIUM EXTRACTS
CRISTINA IANCU1#, OANA CIOANCĂ1#, CHRISTIAN GAIDDON2#, CORNELIA MIRCEA1#*, ALEXANDRA MUNTEANU3#, NINA FILIP1#, BIANCA HANGANU4#, IRINA MANOILESCU4#, MONICA HĂNCIANU1#
1“Grigore T. Popa” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 16 University Street, 700115, Iași, Romania
2Université de Strasbourg – INSERM, Unite 1113, Strasbourg, France
3Clinic of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, “Elias” Universitary Emergency Hospital, Bucharest, Romania
4“Grigore T. Popa” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Department of Legal Medicine, Iași, Romania
*corresponding author: corneliamircea@yahoo.com
#All authors had equal contribution to the present study.
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Abstract:
The current study includes the correlation between the chemical composition and the biological activity of four Pelargonium
species. The plant material is represented by the leaves of Pelargonium hispidum (P.h), P. grandiflorum (P.g), P. radens
(P.r) and P. zonale (P.z). The total phenolic content was determinate on the methanolic extract of each species using the
Folin–Ciocâlteu reagent. The quantitative determination of poliphenols for methanol extracts categorises the species by
ascending scale, as follows: P.g < P.r < P.h < P.z. The UHPLC assay was used for identification and semiquantitative
analysis of certain polyphenolic compounds. The membrane stabilization assay on red blood cells was used to offer
information about the possible anti-inflammatory effect of the studied compounds. For all tested samples we observed that
the methanolic extracts have a protective activity on the erythrocyte membrane, but mostly the methanolic extract of P.
radens (EC50= 99,98 ± 0,22 μg/mL). Another important aspect that we evaluated was the cell viability on a cell line – C2C12
– isolated from the muscle of mice. The 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) cellular
viability assay was used to determine the toxicity of methanolic extracts against the myocytes. The results from the viability
assay suggested that for the methanolic extracts of P.r and P.g at the concentration of 19.5 μg/mL, the EC50 was 92 ± 0.52
μg/mL for P.r and for P.g, the EC50 was 89 ± 0.37 μg/mL. Even though the methanolic extract of P.zonale presented the
highest concentration of polyphenols, the viability assay showed that it had a slightly cytotoxic effect, probably because of
the interactions that occurred between the membrane enzymes and the MTT. Considering all the results, Pelargonium radens
appears to be the most promising species, followed by Pelargonium zonale.

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