Exploration of Antioxidant, Antibacterial, and Alpha-glucosidase Inhibition Potential of Cirsium verutum (D. Don) Spreng Extracts: In vitro and in silico Approach

Abstract

Certain medicinal plants have been used to address common infectious as well as non-infectious diseases. Diabetes mellitus poses a major global health challenge, leading to significant mortality and morbidity each year. Finding side-effect-free treatments for diabetes has always been difficult. Bacterial resistance is recognized as a significant medical concern, highlighting the need to identify new compounds that could serve as potential starting points for addressing or managing infectious diseases. The study focused on the phytochemical extraction of Cirsium verutum (D. Don) Spreng, evaluating its bioactivity and identifying potential molecules through molecular docking that could act as starting compounds for creating alternative drugs to address specific health issues. The aqueous extract demonstrated superior performance, displaying the highest phenolic content and exhibiting notable inhibitory effects on the alpha-glucosidase enzyme (31.39±0.02 mg GAE/gm and 70.46% inhibition with an IC50 value of 37.37±1.46 µg/mL, respectively). The free radical scavenging activity using DPPH indicated the maximum activity in the hexane extracts an IC50 of 442.17±0.42 µg/mL. The extracts of C. verutum demonstrated minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values ranging from 0.78 to 12.5 mg/mL and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) values ranging from 3.12 to 25 mg/mL in the antibacterial assay. The fully characterized compounds from C. verutum were searched from various papers, followed by their molecular docking. In the molecular docking study, it was discovered that among the seven top candidates, pectolinarin (01) was identified as the most promising candidate, exhibiting a docking score of -11.076 kcal/mol against intestinal alpha-glucosidase. This integrated study approach will aid in the discovery of new antibiotics and the management of diabetes.