Assessment of Antioxidant, Antimicrobial and Anticancer Activities and Chemical Composition of Bark of Mahonia napaulensis DC. of Nepal

Abstract Background Cancer is one of the major health problems worldwide and medicinal plants constitute a common alternative for cancer treatment having no or less side effects. This study was aimed to assess total phenolic (TPC) and flavonoid (TFC) contents, antioxidant, biological activities (especially antibacterial, antifungal and anticancer) and chemical composition of methanol extract of M. napaulensis DC. bark (MNBM). This is the first study of evaluating its anticancer activity and chemical composition by LC-MS/MS analysis. Methods TPC, TFC, antioxidant, antimicrobial and anticancer activities were determined by Folin-Ciocalteu, AlCl3, DPPH, resazurin and MTT assays, respectively. Its metabolite profiling was done by LC-MS/MS analysis. The statistical significance of differences between test groups was analyzed by one-way ANOVA test. Results The preliminary phytochemical screening revealed the presence of various phytochemicals viz. alkaloids, steroids, glycosides, polyphenols, tannins, flavonoids, coumarins, terpenoids and quinone. MNBM showed 38.00 ± 1.50 mg GAE g− 1 dry sample as TPC; 35.04 ± 4.87 mg QE g− 1 dry sample as TFC and 212.97 µg/mL IC50 value (P < 0.05) as moderate antioxidant activity. MNBM showed minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) values 100.22 mg/mL, 50.15 mg/mL and 25.08 mg/mL against S. aureus, E. coli and C. albicans, respectively as weak antimicrobial activity. It did not show any antibacterial effect against B. cereus and P. aeruginosa at 120 mg/mL. The anticancer activity of MNBM was moderate against human lung cancer cells A549 (228.97 µg/mL IC50 value) and human cervical cancer cells HeLa (367.72 µg/mL IC50 value) (P < 0.05). The LC-MS/MS analysis reported the presence of different anticancer compounds viz. dihydroberberine, d-berbamine, (S)-glaucine, protopine, grosheimin, mycophenolic acid, berberine, alpha-linolenic acid etc. Conclusions MNBM showed the dose-dependent moderate antioxidant, weak antibacterial, weak antifungal and moderate anticancer activity due to the synergistic effect of different phytochemicals and anticancer compounds.