Phytochemical characterization and multi-biological potentials of <i>Inula viscosa</i> : new <i>in vitro</i> evidence

<i>Inula viscosa</i> is a common medicinal plant and is mostly spread in Mediterranean countries. The current study analyses <i>I. viscosa</i> extracts for antimicrobial capacity, phenolic content, antioxidant, enzyme inhibition, and molecular modeling. The extracts' anticancer potential in prostate and breast cancer cells was evaluated, and their anti-metastatic and molecular activities were analyzed through gene expression. The most prevalent substances in the methanol extract of <i>I. viscosa</i> are phenolic acids, which include derivatives of caffeic acid and mono-, di-, and tri-caffeoylquinic acids. Dicaffeoylquinic acids represented 88 % of the quantified phenolics. The methanol extract showed a 50 % inhibitor concentration (IC₅₀) of 101.4 μg/mL at 48 h in PC3 cells. Autophagy-related genes were found to be down-regulated in all three cancer cells. Regarding antimetastatic activity, the wound width remained ∼96 % at 48 h after ethyl acetate treatment in MCF-7 cells. The water extract had the highest total phenolic content and the strongest antioxidant capacity, followed by the methanol extract. Modest binding potential to B-cell leukemia-2 (Bcl-2) was observed with caffeoylquinic acid and caffeic acid derivatives, which may be related to pro-apoptotic/anticancer effects. Our results suggested that <i>I. viscosa</i> can be considered as an effective raw material for designing health-promoting applications.