The College of Pharmacy discussed the PhD dissertation titled “Phytochemical Evaluation and Cytotoxic Activity of Aerial Parts Extracts of Wild Celosia (Amaranthaceae) in Iraq” by the student Noor Sabah Jaafar under her supervisor Professor. Dr. Enas Jawad Kazem in the Pharmacognosy and Medicinal Plants Department.
The study aimed to isolate, purify, and identify various bioactive constituents from the aerial parts of the plant, in addition to determining the cytotoxic effects of its extracts against different cancer cell lines.
The aerial parts were extracted using four different extraction methods. The first and second methods involved cold and hot sequential extraction using n-hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate, and finally ethanol. The third and fourth methods were performed on defatted plant powder extracted with 80% ethanol, employing ultrasound-assisted extraction in the third method and Soxhlet extraction in the fourth. In the ultrasound-assisted extraction, four parameters were examined: solid-to-solvent ratio, extraction time, ethanol concentration, and ultrasonic frequency. The third method proved more efficient in terms of extraction yield, while the fourth method was superior in terms of phytochemical richness. Therefore, the extract obtained from the Soxhlet method was selected for further fractionation using chloroform, ethyl acetate, and n-butanol to achieve preliminary separation of bioactive metabolites. The cytotoxic potential of the extracts (obtained from the fourth method) was evaluated against five human cancer cell lines: A549, SKTG-4, AGS, A431, and HRT-18.
The study concluded that wild Celosia is a valuable source of terpenoids and phenolic compounds, and two compounds—lutein and Oleoside 11-methyl ester—were identified for the first time in this plant. The plant extracts exhibited varying degrees of cytotoxicity depending on the type of extract and the cancer cell line tested.
The study recommended conducting further analyses to identify additional compounds and to determine the specific constituents responsible for the observed cytotoxic activity.
