Chemical Composition, Antioxidant, and Anti-Alzheimer Potential of Acetone Extract of Tamarix Africana Seeds with Docking Approach: Cholinesterase Enzymes.

Abstract

Background: Bioinformatics, a relatively new discipline, is now widely used to characterize ADMET profiling and the pharmacological characteristics of real bio-molecules found in vegetal, helping in developing new drugs. The actual work aimed to simulate ADMET profile, pharmacological capacities, and cytotoxicity capacities of bioactive molecules identified in Tamarix africana seed extract.

Methods: Anticholinesterase and free radical scavenging capacities with chemical composition and total phenol, total flavonoid, and hydrolyzable tannin of Tamarix africana extract seeds have been quantified. In addition, molecular docking methods were used against cholinesterase's enzymes. LC-MS analyses revealed that the presence of several compounds in T. africana extract were apigenin-7-O-glucoside, diosmin, neohespiridin, and rutin.

Results: Acetone extract from seeds exhibited a large amount of phenolics, flavonoids, and hydrolyzable tannins of 703 ± 3.88 GAE/mg, 266.03 ± 3.09 QE/mg, and 533.77 ± 2.00 TAE/mg, respectively. T. africana extract had a significant inhibitory effect against DPPH (IC50 = 4.50 ± 0.66 µg/mL), which is lower than standards. However, extract had a modest impact against ABTS+ (IC50 = 25.45 ± 1.74 µg/mL). Acetone extract of seeds showed higher IC50 of AChE (IC50 = 102 ± 0.41 µg/mL), while the galantamine showed lower IC50 BChE (IC50 = 4.99 ± 1.33 µg/mL). In silico study revealed that the biocompounds tested have notable cytotoxic effect.

Conclusions: Furthermore, these compounds may be pharmacologically useful. Molecular docking studies demon-strated that among the four tested plant-derived compounds, apigenin-7-O-glucoside, diosmin, neohesperidin, and rutin, apigenin-7-O-glucoside exhibited the highest binding affinity toward acetylcholinesterase (AChE), while diosmin showed the strongest interaction with butyrylcholinesterase (BChE). These findings underscore the therapeutic potential of selected plant bioactives as lead candidates in cholinesterase-targeted drug discovery. T. africana extract can be utilized as a possible source of substitute chemicals.