The Preliminary Study on Phytochemical Profile and Antioxidant and Cytotoxic Activities of Harmal (Peganum harmala L.)

Harmal (Peganum harmala L.) is a perennial plant that has come to the fore with its medicinal use since ancient times. In this study, the phytochemical profile of the methanol extract of harmal was characterized by HPLC and total phenolic and flavonoid amounts were determined by spectrophotometric methods. Additionally, antioxidant and cytotoxic (HT-29 (human colon cancer line), HeLa (human cervical cancer line), and HEK-293 (human embryonic kidney 293)) activities were investigated. Among 20 different phytochemical compounds screened, the presence of catechin (2.65±0.01 mg/g), coumarin (0.96±0.01 mg/g), ascorbic acid (0.91±0.02 mg/g), protocatechuic acid (0.85±0.01 mg/g), gallic acid (0.60±0.01 mg/g), hesperidin (0.24±0.01 mg/g), ferulic acid (0.06±0.01 mg/g), rutin (0.04±0.01 mg/g), and trans-cinnamic acid (0.03±0.01 mg/g) were detected. Total phenolic amount was found as 63.80±0.13 µg GAE/mg extract and total flavonoid amount was found as 13.50±0.36 µg QE/mg extract. Harmal methanol extract showed varying degrees of antioxidant activity in ABTS•+ (IC50: 353.67±1.10 µg/mL), DPPH• (17.54±0.45%), CUPRAC (absorbance: 0.41±0.02), phosphomolybdenum (A0.50: 99.11±0.02 µg/mL), and metal chelating (38.47±0.77%) assays. Harmal methanol extract was low cytotoxic active on HT-29 cell line (> 800 µg/mL) and near-positive control cytotoxic active on HeLa cell line (IC50: 45.84±0.95 μg/mL). These findings highlight harmal as a valuable reserve in the search for natural antioxidant and cytotoxic (on HeLa cell line) agents, especially with respect to the research focusing on possible pharmaceutical and food additive applications.