Beyond the fruit: phenolic composition, cytotoxicity, antioxidant, and multi-enzyme inhibitory activity of twig and leaf extracts from four understudied Turkish Rosa species

The phytochemical profile and multi-target bioactivity of four Turkish Rosa species, R. canina, R. hemisphaerica, R. horrida, and R. pulverulenta, were evaluated across vegetative organs (twigs and leaves) and three solvent polarities (ethyl acetate (EA), methanol (MeOH), water), in total 24 extracts. Untargeted Ultra-High-Performance Liquid Chromatography-Quadrupole Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (UHPLC-QTOF-MS) metabolomics, along with total phenolic (TPC) and flavonoid (TFC) content, six antioxidant assays and inhibition of seven enzymes were determined. Twig EA extracts displayed unexpectedly high TPC (83–105 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE) per g) and TFC (35–47 mg rutin equivalent (RE) per g), indicative of selective aglycone flavonoid enrichment. The phenolic profiles identified 337 putative compounds, of which 60.84% belonged to the flavonoid class. The semi-quantitative analysis also indicates that methanol and water extracts had higher quantities of glycosylated flavonoids and phenolic acids, while EA extracts were richer in lignans, especially R. horrida-leaf-EA (1743.25 µg SE per g DW), and polyphenols. In enzyme inhibition assays, EA extracts demonstrated consistent multi-target activity: AChE inhibition (up to 2.49 mg galantamine equivalent (GALAE) per g), BChE inhibition (up to 4.44 mg GALAE per g), tyrosinase inhibition (up to 63.58 mg kojic acid equivalent (KAE) per g), α-amylase inhibition (up to 0.72 mmol acarbose equivalent ACAE per g), and carbonic anhydrase inhibition (CA I IC<inf>50</inf> as low as 12.17 µg mL⁻¹). The R. hemisphaerica-twig-EA extract showed highly selective cytotoxic activity against A375 cells, with a 50% cytotoxic concentration (CC50) of 3.22 µg mL⁻¹ and an SI of 73.95, compared to VERO cells. This is the first report of carbonic anhydrase inhibition, BChE-selective activity, cytotoxicity, and comprehensive enzyme-inhibitory data for R. hemisphaerica, R. horrida, and R. pulverulenta. These findings reframe the phytopharmacological potential of Turkish Rosa species beyond their traditionally studied fruit.