Secondary metabolite profiling, antioxidant capacity, enzyme inhibitory potential and in silico studies of Launaea intybacea (Jacq.) Beauverd: A multifunctional approach to probe into the new nutraceuticals

Regular intake of bioactive components in herbal supplements and functional foods exert significant long-term health promoting effects; however, there is limited knowledge about medicinal potential of many wild plants. Launaea intybacea, growing in Cholistan Desert is being used in folk medicine system without authentication. In the present study dry powdered of L. intybacea was extracted separately with methanol, n-hexane, ethyl acetate and water. The methanolic extract (LI-M) afforded equal phenolic (20.68 ± 0.19 mgGAE/g extract) and flavonoid (20.92 ± 0.17 mgQE/g extract), whereas, hexane (LI-H) and ethyl acetate (LI-E) extracts showed the highest phenolic contents with values as 25.30 ± 0.14 and 25.38 ± 0.48 mg GAE/g extract, respectively, and LI-E showed significant flavonoid content (12.42 ± 0.29 mg GAE/g extract). The LI-M exhibited good inhibitory activity against DPPH and ABTS free radical (30.67 ± 0.07 and 58.28 ± 4.98 mg TE/g extract, respectively), while the LI-E showed free radical inhibitory values as 11.74 ± 0.27 and 44.79 ± 1.56 mg TE/g extract, respectively. LI-H only displayed significant inhibitory value (28.19 ± 1.24 mg TE/g extract) against ABTS radical. The highest CUPRAC activity (86.22 ± 1.35 mg TE/g extract) was also associated with LI-H, while LI-M and LI-E also showed significant activity with the values as 78.77 ± 0.88 and 76.77 ± 1.08 mg TE/g extract, respectively. FRAP activity was nearly equally associated with LI-M, LI-H and LI-E in the range of 47.46 to 40.07 mg TE/g extract, whereas, the phosphomolybdenum and metal chelating activities were observed higher for LI-H (1.29 ± 0.05 mmol TE/g extract and 27.48 ± 0.32 mg EDTAE/g extract, respectively, followed by LI-E. In enzyme inhibition assay, all the extracts were equally active (3.94 to 3.41 mg GALAE/g extract) against AChE, while LI-H showed the highest inhibitory values of 5.13 ± 0.28 mg GALAE/g extract against BChE. Against tyrosinase, the LI-M showed inhibitory value as 46.94 ± 1.53 mg KAE/g extract, while against α-amylase and α-glucosidase, the higher values (0.58 ± 0.02 and 1.80 ± 0.01 mmol ACAE/g extract, respectively) were associated with LI-E. UHPLC-MS analysis disclosed 102 secondary metabolites comprising of various classes. The above results authenticate medicinal use of Launaea intybacea (Jacq.) Beauverd and proposed the use of its extracts in nutraceutical and health promoting formulations.