Ephedra alata fruit extracts: phytochemical screening, anti-proliferative activity and inhibition of DPPH, α-amylase, α-glucosidase, and lipase enzymes

BACKGROUND: Discovering and screening for potential anti-obesity, anti-diabetic, anticancer, and antioxidant treatments from natural products still in recent times the main goal for many pharmaceutical scientists. The present investigation aimed to evaluate the chemical constituents of Ephedra alata fruits various extracts and to assess their antioxidant, antiobesity, antidiabetic, and cytotoxic effects. RESULT: In this work, high content of flavonoids and phenols were observed in the methanol fraction of E. alata fruits, which reached 98.95 mg of RUE/g and 33.22 mg of GAE/g, respectively. The methanol fraction has significant inhibitory activity against DPPH, α-amylase, α-glucosidase, and lipase with an IC(50) value of 1.07, 9.43, 46.16, and 66.48 µg/mL. respectively. Also has anticancer activity against HeLa cancer cell line. While the acetone fraction has potent antioxidant activity with IC(50) 5 µg/mL. CONCLUSION: The DPPH and digestive enzymes assays results showed that the methanolic fraction of E. alata fruits has potent antioxidant, anti-diabetic, and anti-obesity activities, which can be an excellent candidate for biological and chemical analysis and can be further subjected for isolation of the therapeutically active compounds with anticancer potency.