Romanian Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences

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CYTOPROTECTIVE AND ANTIINFLAMATORY ACTIVITY EVALUATION OF SOME PELARGONIUM EXTRACTS

CRISTINA IANCU 1#, OANA CIOANCĂ 1#, CHRISTIAN GAIDDON 2#, CORNELIA MIRCEA 1#*, ALEXANDRA MUNTEANU 3#, NINA FILIP 1#, BIANCA HANGANU 4#, IRINA MANOILESCU 4#, MONICA HĂNCIANU 1#

1.“Grigore T. Popa” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 16 University Street, 700115, Iași, Romania
2.Université de Strasbourg – INSERM, Unite 1113, Strasbourg, France
3.Clinic 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

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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.