Plants have been used for many years as a source of traditional medicine to treat various diseases and conditions. Beta Vulgaris Linnaeus ranks among the 10 most powerful vegetables as excellent sources for phytochemicals, which showed potent antioxidant and anticancer activities.
The aim of this study is to characterize the chemical composition and determine the cytotoxicity and antibacterial activity of B.Vulgaris roots extract.
The results of GC-Ms analysis of the unsaponifiable matter of B.Vulgaris roots showed the presence of 18 components. The undecane is the major hydrocarbon compound and α-citronellol is the major oxygenated compound.
The methanolic extract of B.Vulgaris roots were enriched with a complicated mixture of phenolic acids and flavoniod which elucidated for the first time from this plant , including polyphenolic acid; ellagic acid (1); pyrogallol(2); salicylic(3); catechol(4); benzoic(5); protocatchuic (6); chlorogenic(7); p-hydroxy benzoic acids (8) . The molecular components of a flavoniod fraction, obtained from liquid chromatography extract, were identified using HPLC -ESI -MS. The major components were vitexin -2" -O-rhamnoside (1); demethylated -2"-xylosylvitexin (2); isorhamnetin -3-gentiobioside (3); rutin(4); beside minor components , luteolin-6-arabinose-8-glucose(1); hesperidin (2); acacetin (3); kaempferol-3-(2 -p -comaroyl) glucose (4); apigenin 6 -arabinose -8-glactose (5); quercetin (6); naringin (7). The structures of all isolated compounds were elucidated by conventional methods, spectroscopic analysis alongside their mass spectrometric investigations.
The search for new, potentially biologically active extract becomes much more efficient after identification of all compounds in that mixture.
The cytotoxic activity of methanolic extract was evaluated against pancreatic carcinoma (PANC-1) , hepatocellular carcinoma cell line HEPG-2 and , Lung carcinoma (A549) using MTT assay and vinblastine as a reference drug. methanolic extract showed higher activity with (IC50=3.69 µg/ml), mild cytotoxic activity against HepG2 with (IC50=4.43 µg/ml) ,Lung carcinoma (A549) with (IC50=4.9 µg/ml) and a weak activity against prostate carcinoma PC-3 with (IC50=6.1 µg/ml).
The antimicrobial activity of B.Vulgaris roots methanolic extract was evaluated using agar well diffusion method towards two representatives for each of Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria. The extract demonstrated inhibitory effect against pathogenic microorganisms: Staphylococcus aureus, ATCC 29213; (ZI=24mm) strains and Pseudomonas aerogenasa ATCC 27853); (ZI=19.3 mm) at 100 µL concentration.