Biological Activities of Selected Medicinal and Edible Plants Aqueous Infusions

This study investigated the phenolic profile and biological activities (antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-hyperglycemic and antiproliferative) of aqueous infusions prepared from the following medicinal and edible plants: Geranium macrorrhizum L., Verbascum thapsus L., Ononis spinosa L., Achillea millefolium L., and Polygonum aviculare L. Despite their long-term usage and numerous scientific results on various solvent extracts of selected plants, they are still un-explored in terms of certain aspects of in vitro biological activities, especially in the form of aqueous infusions, which are a very common form of consumption of medicinal plants. The phenolic analysis of the selected infusions was carried out using the HPLC-DAD method and showed the highest content of total phenols in G. macrorrhizum and P. aviculare, the highest total flavonoid content in P. aviculare, and a high content of procyanidins in G. macrorrhizum. The highest antioxidant activity according to the three methods (DPPH, FRAP and Rancimat) was achieved by G. macrorrhizum and A. millefolium. The aqueous infusions of the selected plants showed no antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 and Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923. The highest anti-hyperglycemic activity by inhibition of the enzymes α-glucosidase and α-amylase and the highest antiproliferative activity against MD-MBA-231, A549 and T24 cells was obtained from G. macrorrhizum.