Potent Therapeutic Insights From Eryngium campestre: Phytochemical Profiling and In Vitro Evaluation

The investigation of the biological activities of plants utilized in traditional medicine to treat various illnesses is of great importance for their potential evaluation as pharmaceutical raw materials in modern medicine. In the present study, the anticancer, antimicrobial, and anti-quorum-sensing (anti-QS) activities of ethyl acetate, ethanol, ethanol-water, and water extracts prepared from the aerial parts of Eryngium campestre by maceration were tested. The biological content, antioxidant, and enzyme-inhibitory capacity of the extracts were also investigated. E. campestre extracts possess a rich flavonoid and phenolic composition. The ethanol-water extract had the highest total polyphenol content. 3-hydroxybenzoic acid, 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, vanillic acid, p-coumaric acid, and ferulic acid were common and abundant across all extracts. The ethanol extract showed the highest enzyme-inhibitory activity in acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) tests with values of 2.68 and 3.17 mg GALAE/g, respectively. The anticancer activity results revealed that the lowest 50% inhibitory concentration (IC₅₀) for cell viability in the MDA-MB-231 cell line was 215.2 μg/mL for the ethanol extract. For the HeLa cell line, the lowest IC₅₀ value was defined as 151.7 μg/mL for the ethyl acetate extract. No antimicrobial effects were detected in the tested concentrations of the extracts against reference microbial strains. To determine anti-QS activity, the inhibitory effect on violacein pigment production was investigated on the Chromobacterium violaceum CV026 mutant strain. No inhibition of pigment production was observed in the study. Based on the findings, E. campestre may have potential for further anticancer research and pharmacological studies.