Phytochemical profiling, cytotoxic effect, and in vitro anti-diabetic assessment of Asparagus horridus L. with in silico insights of brassicin

Asparagus L., a traditional medicinal genus, exhibits remarkable biological activities, yet Asparagus horridus L. has received little attention in chemical and biological assessments. Isolation procedures on A. horridus extract yielded two phenolic acids and nine flavonols. Further chemical profiling through LC-ESI-MS characterized 104 metabolites with a wealth of phenolic acids, flavonoids, and steroids. Moreover, the extract showed moderate inhibition for HepG2 (48.3%) and HCT116 (45.6%) at 100 ppm. Furthermore, it recorded the highest α-glucosidase and α-amylase inhibition at concentrations, ppm, of 182 (62.02±0.06 %) and 285 (87.3±4.6 %), respectively, compared to acarbose (100 %). To predict the hyperglycemia inhibition of the isolates, molecular docking was established, in which the flavonols showed remarkable values of binding energy in Kcal/mol, among which, (tiliroside and nicotiflorin) exhibited significant values (-8.0 and -8.4) for α-glucosidase whereas (quercetin and brassicin) with (-9.1 and -9.2) for α-amylase compared to the standard (-7.7 and -9.6), respectively. Moreover, various isolates fall within the acceptable bioavailability zone through ADME and pass Lipinski’s law and Ghose filter of the drug-likeness test. The findings highlight the potential of A. horridus constituents as inhibitors of diabetes-related enzymes and offer the first in silico analysis of brassicin, underscoring its uniqueness and potential therapeutic applications.