Functional constituents of Colchicum lingulatum Boiss. & Spruner subsp. Rigescens K. Perss. Extracts and their biological activities with different perspectives

The genus Colchicum comprises medicinal plants with important bioactive alkaloids, mainly colchicine, and phenolics. The present study was aimed to determine for the first time the phytoconstituents, antioxidant, enzyme inhibition and cytotoxic properties of corms of C. lingulatum. Different solvents extracts (hexane, ethyl acetate, methanol and water) were obtained. The extracts were examined for chemical characterization, antioxidant, enzyme inhibition and cytotoxic properties. To gain more insights, in silico and network pharmacological analysis were performed. Results of GC/MS analysis of the hexane extract revealed that the extract was dominated by oxygenated diterpenes (37%). UHPLC/MS analysis of ethyl acetate, methanol and aqueous extracts indicated the presence of flavonoids as the most abundant class in addition to phenolic acids and alkaloids. The alkaloid colchicine together with its derivatives colchiceine, colchiciline and isomers were detected in the methanol and aqueous extracts. Results of antioxidant activity showed that the methanol extract exhibited the highest DPPH radical scavenging. At 100 μg/mL, the ethyl acetate, methanol and aqueous extracts displayed potent cytotoxicity against the human embryonic (HEK 293), murine macrophages (RAW 264.7). In silico analyzes have investigated the potential of C. lingulatum in cancer therapy using network pharmacology and molecular docking methods. These results demonstrate C. lingulatum can be a valuable source of bioactive compounds in the development of functional applications including nutraceuticals.