Phytochemical profiling, bioactivity and docking studies of Cucumis ficifolius constituents

Abstract

Cucumis ficifolius A.Rich . (Cucurbitaceae) is a popular hedge plant in Ethiopia traditionally been used against malaria, diarrhea, teeth-ach, wounds, burns, stomach ache, meningitis and cancer. The n -hexane and EtOAc extract of the leaves, stems, fruits and roots after silica gel column chromatography afford nine compounds identified as lignoceric acid (1) , α -spinasterol (2), cucurbitacin B (3) , cucurbitacin D (4) , eicosane (5) , stearic acid (6) , 12-hydroxyoctacosa-9,13-dienoic acid (7) , 13-hydroxyoctadeca-9,11-dienoic acid ( 8) and kuguaglycoside E -3-acetate ( 9) . The extracts and isolated compounds displayed broad range of antibacterial activity against all tested bacterial pathogens. The n -hexane extract of root of C. ficifolius A.Rich . exhibited the highest IZD of 14.00 ± 0.10 mm, against P. aeruginosa, at 400 μg/mL. Compound 2 displayed highest IZD of 15.00 ± 0.10 mm, against P. aurogonosa at 400 μg/mL. The extracts were evaluated for their cytotoxicity using MTT assay against MCF-7 breast cancer cell lines. The results revealed that methanol extract of the leaves of C. ficifolius showed promising result compared to the other extracts with IC 50 = 10.48 μg/mL . The DPPH radical scavenging activity shown that the EtOAc extract of roots and compound 9 exhibited better DPPH radical with IC 50 values of 7.24 μg/mL and 4.83 μg/mL, respectively. Compounds 3 and 4 displayed binding affinity of −9.1 − 9.8 kcal/mol against S. aureus DNA gyrase respectively. The binding affinities of compounds 2 was found to be −9.6 kcal/mol against human topoisomerase IIβ. Most of the isolated compounds obeyed Lipinski's rule of five.