AUTHOR=Alruhaili Mohammed H. , Almuhayawi Mohammed S. , Gattan Hattan S. , Alharbi Mohanned Talal , Nagshabandi Mohammed K. , Jaouni Soad K. Al , Selim Samy , AbdElgawad Hamada 

TITLE=Insight into the phytochemical profile and antimicrobial activities of Amomum subulatum and Amomum xanthioides: an in vitro and in silico study

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science

VOLUME=14

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2023.1136961

DOI=10.3389/fpls.2023.1136961

ISSN=1664-462X

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Introduction</title><p>Medicinal plants have been considered as potential source of therapeutics or as starting materials in drugs formulation.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>The current study aims to shed light on the therapeutic potential of the <italic>Amomum subulatom</italic> and <italic>Amomum xanthioides</italic> Fruits by analyzing the phytochemical composition of their seeds and fruits using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) techniques to determine the presence of bioactive components such as flavonoids, phenols, vitamins, steroids, and essential oils.</p></sec><sec><title>Results and Discussion</title><p>The protein content is usually higher than the total lipids in both species except the fruit of <italic>A. subulatum</italic> which contain more lipids than proteins. The total protein contents for <italic>A. subulatum</italic> were 235.03 ± 21.49 and 227.49 ± 25.82 mg/g dry weight while for <italic>A. xanthioides</italic> were 201.9 ± 37.79 and 294.99 ± 37.93 mg/g dry weight for seeds and fruit, respectively. The Carvacrol levels in <italic>A. subulatum</italic> is 20 times higher than that in <italic>A. xanthioides</italic>. Lower levels of α-Thujene, Phyllanderenes, Ascaridole, and Pinocarvone were also observed in both species. According to DPPH (2,2-diphenylpicrylhydrazyl) assay, seed the extract of <italic>A. subulatum</italic> exhibited the highest antioxidant activity (78.26±9.27 %) followed by the seed extract of <italic>A. xanthioides</italic> (68.21±2.56 %). Similarly, FRAP (Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power) assay showed that the highest antioxidant activity was exhibited by the seed extract of the two species; 20.14±1.11 and 21.18±1.04 µmol trolox g−1 DW for <italic>A. subulatum</italic> and <italic>A. xanthioides</italic>, respectively. In terms of anti-lipid peroxidation, relatively higher values were obtained for the fruit extract of <italic>A. subulatum</italic> (6.08±0.35) and the seed extract of <italic>A. xanthioides</italic> (6.11±0.55). Ethanolic seed extracts of <italic>A. subulatum</italic> had the highest efficiency against four Gram-negative bacterial species which causes serious human diseases, namely <italic>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</italic>, <italic>Proteus vulgaris</italic>, <italic>Enterobacter aerogenes</italic>, and <italic>Salmonella typhimurium</italic>. In addition, <italic>P. aeruginosa</italic> was also inhibited by the fruit extract of both <italic>A. subulatum</italic> and <italic>A. xanthioides</italic>. For the seed extract of <italic>A. xanthioides</italic>, large inhibition zones were formed against <italic>P. vulgaris</italic> and the fungus <italic>Candida albicans</italic>. Finally, we have <italic>in silico</italic> explored the mode of action of these plants by performing detailed molecular modeling studies and showed that the antimicrobial activities of these plants could be attributed to the high binding affinity of their bioactive compounds to bind to the active sites of the sterol 14-alpha demethylase and the transcriptional regulator MvfR.</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusion</title><p>These findings demonstrate the two species extracts possess high biological activities and therapeutical values, which increases their potential value in a number of therapeutic applications.</p></sec>