Phytochemical Constituents and Biological Prospects of Clover Broomrape

Up to the present moment, scores of parasitic plants are still uninvestigated for their chemical composition and biological activities. In this study, our objective is to supplement the recognition of the parasitic plant Orobanche minor by screening the phytochemical outline of its ethanol extract by HPLC-ESI-MS2 analysis. The assesment contributed to detection and tentative identification of twelve compounds; including phenylethanoid glycosides, aromatic acids, sterols and a flavonoid. MTT assay revealed that the plant is fairly safe and has no in vitro cytotoxicity on normal human skin fibroblast cells (NHSFbs). The assessment of the extract's antioxidant capacity was carried out comparatively using three different methods; DPPH radical scavenging assay, FRAP assay and superoxide radical scavenging activity. The extract displayed a strong antioxidant activity when compared with ascorbic acid. Furthermore, the plant extract possessed a significant in vitro skin photoprotecting and anti-inflammatory activities on ultra violet exposed NHSFbs diminishing MMP-1 the enzyme which induces collagen lyses and reducing the cytokine which induces inflammation IL-6 respectively.