Unrivalled insight into potential biopharmaceutical application of Saussurea albescens (DC.) Sch.Bip.: Chemical profiling, antioxidant and enzyme inhibition activities and in silico studies

Saussurea albescens has been used in traditional Asian medicine for its reputed medicinal properties. Therefore, in present investigation detailed chemical profiling of plant materials was done through quantification of phenolics and flavonoids components, and metabolic profiling was done by UHPLC-MS analysis. The ethyl acetate (SAE) fraction was found to have higher phenolic and flavonoid content (72.04 ± 0.16 mg GAE/g extract and 31.28 ± 0.32 mg RE/g extract, respectively) which was followed by methanolic fraction (SAM), with levels of 27.57 ± 0.30 mg GAE/g extract and 14.19 ± 0.16 mg RE/g extract, respectively. UHPLC-MS analysis through negative mode resulted in identification of 36 metabolites in methanolic fraction and 18 metabolites in ethyl acetate fraction. In DPPH, ABTS, FRAP, and CUPRAC assays, the ethyl acetate fraction displayed the maximum antioxidant activity, with the values of 172.74 ± 3.00, 216.06 ± 1.19, 164.35 ± 3.00, and 346.11 ± 3.31 mg TE/g extract, respectively; these activities could be attributed to the higher phenolic and flavonoid contents of ethyl acetate fraction. Methanolic extract exhibited anti-tyrosinase activity (62.99 ± 0.80 mg KAE/g extract), that discloses the significant of S. albescens in cosmetic and skin care products. Among identified compounds, important metabolites were docked against all the test enzymes and it is observed that luteolin 7-rhamnosyl (1 → 6) galactoside, puerarin 4′,6″-diacetate and robinetin 3-rutinoside displayed higher binding affinity than the standard used. Further, the multivariate analysis was performed to find the correlation between biological activities and total bioactive contents, which also verified the results. Overall, current research supports the traditional usage of S. albescens by showing that it contains antioxidant and enzyme inhibitory capabilities.