An Integrated Metabolomics and Bioactivity Approach to Characterize Salvia heldreichiana and Salvia tomentosa...

The genus Salvia, widely known as sage, represents the largest group within the Lamiaceae family and includes numerous species with traditional uses. This study investigates the chemical composition, antioxidant activity, enzyme inhibition, and antibacterial activity of the aerial parts and roots of two Salvia species, Salvia heldreichiana, and Salvia tomentosa. For chemical analysis, ultraperformance liquid chromatography-quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-QTOF-MS) was used. LC-QTOF-MS analysis revealed that the extracts from the aerial parts of S. tomentosa had a higher number of metabolites than those of S. heldreichiana, including amino and organic acids, various phenolic compounds, and unknown metabolites. S. heldreichiana aerial parts water extract possessed the highest antioxidant activity in CUPRAC > FRAP > ABTS > DPPH > MCA > PBD. For the enzyme inhibition, S. heldreichiana root extracts exhibited the highest anti-AChE activity, particularly in Ethanol extracts (2.88 mg GALAE/g), while the highest anti-BChE activity was the ethanol extract of the aerial part (3.65 mg GALAE/g). Consequently, the ethanol/water aerial part extracts, with their superior antioxidant, phenolic, and multienzyme inhibitory profile, present themselves as best candidates of S. heldreichiana and S. tomentosa for further in vivo pharmacological evaluation and development.