Abstract
In developing countries, about 60-90% of their population depends on herbal extract therapy. Therefore, studies are being intensified on treatment with natural products for maintaining human health. The current work aims to characterize the bioactive metabolites by LC- ESI-MS/MS from aqueous methanol extract (AME) of Combretum indicum aerial parts as well as their potential antioxidant and antitumor activity. Plant material was crushed to a fine powder, then extracted with 70℅ (Aq) CH3OH by soaking at room temperature (Macération). The chemical profiling of the plant was performed using liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS) in negative mode (-ve). Fifty nine metabolites were qualitatively identified for the first time from the plant based on their retention times and fragment ions. Combretum Indicum aerial parts were tested for antioxidant activity using the DPPH, reducing power, ABTS, FRAP, and ion metal chelating assays. On Ehrlich ascites carcinoma cells, the entire extract was tested for its ability to inhibit cell viability %. The total extract had a reasonable impact on the viability of Ehrlisch ascites carcinoma cells at all tested concentrations in dose dependent manner. High concentration of the examined extract achieved cytotoxic effect convergent to that obtained by the commonly used drug vincristine. The results of the whole extract of Combretum indicum aerial parts conclusively demonstrate that this plant can be considered potential antioxidant and antitumor agents, which supports its use in complementary treatments.