Ajania fastigiata in Zhetysu Alatau: Distribution, morphological characterization, phytochemical profiles, and optimization of extraction of bioactive constituents

Abstract

Despite the wide medicinal use of Ajania fastigiata (C. Winkl.) Poljakov. in folk medicine, most Ajania species from Central Asia have not been explored comprehensively. Resource data revealed that A. fastigiata growing in the Zhetysu Alatau of Kazakhstan in three gorges among the Terekty river valley, Maliy Baskan, Sarkan, and the Karasyryk gorge at altitudes of 1183–1510 m. Anatomical and morphological studies were carried out on the vegetative organs of plants and results can be noted that A. fastigiata is typical for xerophytic plants growing in conditions of lack of moisture. Phytochemical investigation of the main bioactive constituents, together with the plant quality standardization were determined by the methods of State Pharmacopeia. Eleven macro-, and microelements of the A. fastigiata were identified with analysis of multi-element atomic emission spectral. Moreover, A. fastigiata demonstrated notable effectiveness against enzymes related diabetes and bacterial infections (α-glucosidase, PTP1B, BNA) and encouraging antioxidant properties. It is concluded that A. fastigiata is widely distributed and has potential ethnobotanical use with strong phytochemical composition which pharmacological active composition extraction method was determined by optimization model. The ideal parameters were identified as follows: a temperature of 50 °C, a time of 120 minutes, and a sonication power of 30 kHz for both dichloromethane (DCM) and ethyl acetate (EtOAc) extracts of A. fastigiata. Under these optimized conditions, the DPPH-RSA values for the DCM and EtOAc extracts were determined to be 41.84% and 83.08%, respectively, and matched the anticipated results.