The biological activity and phenolic content of endemic Astragalus baibutensis

Astragalus baibutensis, is a plant endemic to Turkey, belonging to Fabaceae family, that is used as a folk medicine and food in this country. The purpose of this study is to find out the biological activities such as antioxidant, antimicrobial, enzyme inhibitory and DNA protective activity and also analyse the phenolic contents of the plant. To determine of antioxidant activity ABTS and DPPH assays were performed. Disc diffusion and microdilution methods were used to evaluate the antimicrobial activity. Additionally, enzyme inhibitory activities such as α-amylase, α-glucosidase, and tyrosinase were determined by using spectrophotometric methods. DNA protective activity was detected using pUC19 Plazmid DNA. The antiproliferative effect on SKOV-3 human ovarian cancer cells was examined by WST-8 assay. In addition, the phenolic contents were analysed by using HPLC. The biological activity of ethyl acetate extract of the root was found to be higher than those of other extracts. This extract had the highest amount of apigenin as phenolic compound. On the other hand, extracts showed moderate inhibition against the tested microorganism and antiproliferative properties in a concentration-dependent manner toward ovarian cancer cells. According to the results, Astragalus baibutensis has the potential for pharmaceutical and food additive usage.