Bioactivity Screening of Bellevalia sasonii Extract: Insights into Its Antioxidant, Antimicrobial, and Cytotoxic Potential on HT-29 Colorectal Cells

This study investigates the antioxidant, antimicrobial, and anticancer properties of Bellevalia sosonii, an endemic species with limited prior pharmacological research. The findings reveal that B. sosonii possesses notable radical-scavenging activity, particularly in the subterranean acetone extract, which exhibited the strongest antioxidant effect in both the ABTS (IC₅₀: 1.9 µg/ml) and DPPH (IC₅₀: 11.6 µg/ml) assays. This extract also had the highest total phenolic content (288.5 ± 1.7 µg GAE/mg extract), while the subterranean methanol extract contained the greatest flavonoid concentration (602.8 ± 1.8 µg QE/mg extract). Overall, the antioxidant activity of the extracts was comparable to or approached that of the positive controls. In antimicrobial testing, moderate inhibition was observed, with the aerial methanol extract demonstrating the strongest effect against Candida albicans (inhibition zone: 10 mm; MIC: 1.2 mg/ml). In anticancer evaluations, all extracts showed dose- and time-dependent cytotoxicity against HT-29 colorectal cancer cells, with an average reduction in cell viability of 50% after 48 hours. The aerial methanol extract exhibited the most pronounced cytotoxic effect, reducing cell viability to 33%. These results suggest that B. sosonii is a promising natural source of bioactive compounds with potential pharmaceutical applications, particularly in the development of antioxidant and anticancer agents.