Cytotoxic, antioxidant, iNOS, AChE, BChE inhibitory and antimicrobial activities of ethanol extract of Cyprus endemic plant Salvia veneris

Salvia veneris Hedge (Lamiaceae) is an endemic species of Cyprus. This species finds use as an herbal tea in the region by the misidentification instead of S. officinalis. There is no information on the biological activity of S. veneris in the literature. Here we report the biological activities of ethanol extract of this species. The cytotoxicity of the extract was evaluated against PC3, HeLa, CaCo-2, MCF-7, U87MG, HEK293, mPanc-96 cell lines. Highest activity was observed against PC3, mPanc-96 and HeLa cell lines 6.158, 8.704 and 9.907 µg/mL (IC₅₀) respectively. The extract produced 11.00 µg/mL iNOS inhibitory activity which is higher concentration than the positive control parthenolide 0.6 µg/mL (IC₅₀). Low AChE and BChE enzyme inhibitory activity was observed at 10 mg/mL concentration which produced 26.54 ± 0.58% and 35.87 ± 0.53 respectively (n = 3). Additionally the extract produced highest antimicrobial activity against C. albicans, S. epidermis, and E. faecium microorganisms with 15.6, 31.25, 31.25 µg/mL MIC values respectively. Highest DPPH scavenging activity was observed at 10 mg/mL concentration 90.83 ± 0.0% (n = 3) which is lower than positive control (α-tocopherol at 10 mg/mL; 92.38 ± 0.01% (n = 3)). The PRAP activity was 0.92 ± 0.04 AU at 10 mg/mL which corresponds to the activity observed for 2.1 mg/mL α-tocopherol (y = 0.2251x+0.4354; R²= 0.9932; n = 3). The FRAP activity of the 10 mg/mL extract corresponds to activity observed for 5.70 ± 0.10 mg/mL α-tocopherol concentration (n = 3; y = 0.1268x+0.0548; R²= 0.9922). The extract showed high potential for most of the activity tests studied. According to the presented activity results identification of the active compounds is currently under investigation.