Scutellaria multicaulis is a medicinal plant indigenous to Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. It has been widely used as a prominent herb in traditional medicine for thousands of years. This plant is reported to contain baicalein, wogonin, and chrysin flavonoids, which are a significant group of chemical ingredients which can cure different diseases, such as breast cancer. S. multicaulis leaf extract was used for the bioreduction of silver nanoparticles (SmL-Ag-NPs), and their phytochemical contents and antioxidant, antibacterial, anti-proliferative, and apoptotic activity were evaluated. Optimal physicochemical properties of SmL-Ag-NPs were obtained by mixing 5% of leaf extract and 2 mM of aqueous AgNO₃ solution and confirmed by characterization studies including UV–visible spectrophotometry, Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FE-SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX), Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), zeta potential, Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), X-ray crystallography (XRD), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy. SmL-Ag-NPs exhibited a higher content of total phenol and total flavonoid and potential antioxidant activity. SmL-Ag-NPs also demonstrated dose-dependent cytotoxicity against MDA-MB231 cell multiplication with an IC₅₀ value of 37.62 μg/mL through inducing cell apoptosis. Results show that SmL-Ag-NPs is effective at inhibiting the proliferation of MDA-MB231 cells compared to tamoxifen. This demonstrates that SmL-Ag-NPs could be a bio-friendly and safe strategy to develop new cancer therapies with a reduction in the adverse effects of chemotherapy in the near future.

Scutellaria araxensis, S. bornmuelleri and S. orientalis are traditional herbs widely used by native Iranians for the treatment various ailments. In the current study, we used HPLC-DAD-ESI/MSⁿ to investigate the presence of phenolic compounds of root and shoot methanolic extracts. The flavonoid composition were identified based on mass of pseudomolecular [M − H]⁻ ions and fragmentation spectra and comparisons with literature data. A total of 26, 25, 17, 23, 19 and 26 flavonoids were identified from roots and shoots of S. araxensis, S. bornmuelleri and S. orientalis, respectively. The obtained phenolic profiles revealed the presence of the major flavonoid components of Scutellaria genus including baicalein, wogonin, scutellarein and their glycosides, as well as chrysin, tricin, skullcapflavon II, pinocembrin and phenylethanoid glycosides such as acteoside and verbascoside. This study, in addition to reveal the potency of chromatographic profiling for identification of Scutellaria flavonoids, introduces this species as a potential source of bioactive metabolites. Graphical Abstract

Doi:10.3906/bot-1210-12 The role of Mn-SOD and Fe-SOD genes in the response to low temperature in chs mutants of Arabidopsi

The medicinal plant, Scutellaria orientalis, is used for the treatment of several diseases in North-western of Iran. The purpose of this study was to investigate the phytochemical content, cytotoxicity assay against SW-480 and HCT-116 cells and anti-haemolytic activities using HPLC-PDA, GC/MS, MTT and spectrophotometry methods, respectively. Phytochemical screening revealed the presence of different terpenoids and flavonoids such as baicalin, tricin and wogonin and also some of the other medicinally active compounds such as conhydrine and cannabidiol. MTT results revealed that HCT-116 cells were more sensitive to examined extracts compared with SW-480 cells. Methanol extract had the most anti-proliferative activity against HCT-116 and SW-480 cells at 48 h with IC50 values of 614.5 and 592.3 µg/mL, respectively. Also, all samples had no significant haemolytic effect on human erythrocytes. Our results revealed that S. orientalis root extract has a promising anticancer activity, indicating the presence of major anti-cancer agents on human colon cell lines. Graphical Abstract

Novel COVID-19 is a public health emergency that poses a serious threat to people worldwide. Given the virus spreading so quickly, novel antiviral medications are desperately needed. Repurposing ex...