Tripleurospermum inodorum – mayweed without scent but with range of bioactivities

Tripleurospermum inodorum (L.) Sch. Bip. (Asteraceae), scentless mayweed, is a common weed species, but despite its abundancy it is still underexplored in the terms of its bioactivities. The aim of the study was to explore the bioactivities of scentless mayweed methanolic extract including antimicrobial, antibiofilm, antioxidant, cytotoxic, and antiinflammatory activity and to provide deeper insight into its chemical composition. It was shown that T. inodorum inhibits growth of human pathogenic microorganisms with minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) in range 3-12 mg/mL, with the lowest MIC noted for the species Candida albicans 475/15, C. albicans 17/15, C. parapsilosis ATCC 22019, Pseudomonas aeruginosa (IBRS P001), Yersinia enterocolitica (ATCC 23715), and Klebsiella pneumoniae (ATCC 13883). Its biofilm potential was promising - application of plant extract (1.5 and 3 mg/mL) reduced C. albicans 475/15 biofilm biomass and biofilm cell viability for more than 50%. Antioxidant assays suggested the plants antioxidant potential at 442.2 mmol GAE (gallic acid equivalent)/100 mg DW (dry weight) as in ABTS􀀀+ assay, 277.8 mmol GAE/100 mg DW in DPPH∙, and 204.4 mmol GAE/100 mg DW as recorded in the FRAP assay. Wide cytotoxic potential of the extract was noticed for the range of cells: AGS (gastric adenocarcinoma, GI50 198.7 μg/mL), CaCo2 (colorectal adenocarcinoma, GI50 278.2 μg/mL), MCF-7 (breast adenocarcinoma, GI50 265.7 μg/mL), NCI-H460 (lung carcinoma, GI50 62.9 μg/mL), and VERO (non-tumour cell line, GI50 >400 μg/mL). Likewise, low IC50 (8.4 μg/mL) in the RAW 246.7 anti-inflammatory assay suggests the strong antiinflammatory potential of this weed. The dominant polyphenols in the extract were two apigenin derivatives: apigenin-O-pentoside and apigenin-O-acetylhexoside (5.234 mg/g and 4.929 mg/g extract, respectively). T. inodorum is a rich source of different bioactive polyphenols and its methanolic extract displays a range of bioactive features that should be further examined in order to develop novel herbal medicines This research is funded by the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development (Contract No. 451-03-68/2022-14/200007). Authors are also grateful to Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support through national funds FCT/MCTES to the CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020). M.I. Dias, R. Calhelha, and L. Barros thank the national funding by FCT, P.I., through the institutional scientific employment program for their contracts. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion