Cytotoxic Activity and Metabolic Profiling of Fifteen Euphorbia Species

Euphorbia is a large genus of flowering plants with a great diversity in metabolic pattern. Testing the cytotoxic potential of fifteen Euphorbia species revealed highest activity of E. officinarum L. against human colon adenocarcinoma (CACO2) cell line (IC(50) 7.2 µM) and of E. lactea Haw. against human hepatoma (HepG2) and human breast adenocarcinoma (MCF-7) cell lines (IC(50) 5.2 and 5.1 µM, respectively). Additionally, metabolic profiling of the fifteen tested species, using LC-HRMS, for dereplication purposes, led to the annotation of 44 natural compounds. Among the annotated compounds, diterpenoids represent the major class. Dereplication approach and multivariate data analysis are adopted in order to annotate the compounds responsible for the detected cytotoxic activity. Results of Principle component analysis (PCA) come in a great accordance with results of biological testing, which emphasized the cytotoxic properties of E. lactea Haw. A similarity correlation network showed that the two compounds with the molecular formula C(16)H(18)O(8) and C(20)H(30)O(10), are responsible for cytotoxic activity against MCF-7 and HepG2 cell lines. Similarly, the compound with molecular formula C(18)H(35)NO correlates with cytotoxic activity against CACO2.