Valorization Model of <i>Yulania biondii</i> Waste: Component Analysis and Antibacterial, Antioxidant, and Antitumor Activities of the Extracts

Yulania biondii contains diverse bioactive compounds with significant application potential in the pharmaceutical, food, and cosmetics industries. This study investigates the bioactivity and composition of extracts from Y. biondii. It gives us a way to think about how to use forestry waste resources in a more complete way. Extracts from Y. biondii branches, leaves, and fruits were obtained using solvents such as water, ethanol, and acetone. The chemical components were analyzed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), and high-performance liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (HPLC-QTOF-MS). The antimicrobial activity of the extracts was assessed using the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) method, whereas antioxidant capacity was evaluated using DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging assays. Antitumor activity against HeLa, K562, SGC-7901, MCF-7, and HepG2 cells was assessed using the MTT assay. The results indicate that Y. biondii extracts contain a high content of flavonoids, alkaloids, phenolic compounds, and organic acids, with the ethanol extract showing the highest proportion of bioactive components at 64.93%. Additionally, Y. biondii extracts exhibited antioxidant, antibacterial, and antitumor properties, with particularly strong antioxidant effects that increased with higher extract concentrations. Among the extraction parts, the branch extract demonstrated the strongest antioxidant capacity, followed by the fruit extract, with the leaf extract showing the lowest capacity. Regarding antibacterial activity, the ethanol and acetone extracts from leaves and branches displayed strong inhibitory effects against Gram-positive bacteria. The ethanol extract from branches showed the strongest inhibition against Staphylococcus aureus, whereas the acetone extract from leaves exhibited the best inhibition against Bacillus cereus. Both ethanol and water extracts displayed varying levels of inhibition against five common tumor cell lines, with the antitumor activity ranked as follows, from strongest to weakest: leukemia cells, human gastric cancer cells, cervical cancer cells, human liver cancer cells, and human breast cancer cells. Notably, the water extract from Y. biondii leaves exhibited the strongest inhibition against human gastric cancer cells, with an inhibition rate of 82.49%. This study revealed the compositional characteristics of Y. biondii extracts and preliminarily evaluated their potential in antibacterial, antioxidant, and antitumor applications, providing a theoretical reference for the further development and application of natural plant extracts.