Anticancer potential of furanocoumarins and flavonoids of Heracleum persicum fruit

Abstract

Abstract Heracleum persicum Desf. ex Fischer (Umbelliferae) is a herbaceous perennial plant distributed in Iran and Turkey. The aromatic fruits of this plant are commonly used as food additive, carminative, antiseptic and tonic. The present study was designed to isolate non-volatile constituents of H. persicum fruits and evaluate their anti-tumor potentials against different cancer cells. Phytochemical analysis using chromatography on silica gel and Sephadex LH-20 columns resulted in the isolation of phellopterin (1), angelicin (2), pimpinellin (3), bergapten (4), isopimpinellin (5) and xanthotoxin (6) from dichloromethane fraction along with apterin (7), isorhamnetin 3-O-glucoside (8), isorhamnetin 3-O-rutinoside (narcissin) (9), and quercetin 3-O-rutinoside (rutin) from n-butanol fraction of H. persicum fruits extract. 1H-NMR and 13C-NMR spectral analyses were applied to characterize the chemical structures. In MTT assay all of the tested compounds demonstrated preferential cytotoxic activity against cancer cells (IC50; 40–370 µg/mL) in comparison with HUVEC normal cells (IC50; > 1000 µg/mL). Among the compounds phellopterin (1) showed the highest anti-tumor activity toward U-266, SK-MM-1 and RPMI-8226 multiple myeloma cells with IC50 values of 44.3 ± 1.4, 69.1 ± 1.2 and 85.7 ± 1.8 µg/mL, respectively.