IN VITRO EVALUATIONS OF ANTIOXIDANT, ANTIMICROBIAL AND ANTICANCER POTENTIAL OF Phytolacca americana L. (POKEWEED) SEED EXTRACT

In this study, different parts of Phytolacca americana L. (Pokeweed) fruit from Turkey were investigated for their antioxidant, antibacterial, antibiofilm and anticancer potentials. To appraise of the antioxidant potentials the radical scavenging activities, reducing power and total phenolic content were determined. The antibacterial and antibiofilm activities of the extract against Enterococcus faecalis, Yersinia enterocolitica, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia, Salmonella typhimurium were evaluated by using agar-well diffusion, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and biofilm inhibitory concentration (BIC) assays. In addition of latening the onset of apoptosis depending on dose, the potential of the anti-proliferative effects were investigated on MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 cells. The highest free radical scavenging activity and phenolic content were found in seed extract of P. americana L. Seed extract showed the highest inhibition zones and showed good antibacterial activity at 2.5-5 mg/ml MIC concentrations against all bacterial strains. More significantly, seed extract was found effective on inhibition of early phase biofilm formation at 2.5- 10 mg/ml BIC concentrations against all used bacterial strains. In addition, only seed extract exhibited strong antigrowth effects on cells at different concentrations for 48 and 72 h. Subsequently, the main mechanisms of cell death of seed extract in MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 cells were investigated led to late stage of apoptosis in the cells that cell showed positivity both Hoechst 33342 and PI at the dose dependent manner. This study showed that P. americana seed extract can contribute to alternative medicine studies and have potential power in the pharmaceutical industry.