phytochemical analysis and various biological activities of the aerial parts of scrophularia atropatana growing in iran

Scrophularia atropatana (s. atropatana), an iranian plant belonging to the family of scrophulariaceae, was assigned for its chemical compositions and biological activities of essential oil (eo) and extracts of the aerial parts of the plant during the flowering stage. combination of gcms and gcfid was assessed for analyzing the chemical compositions of the eo from the aerial parts of s. atropatana. furthermore, brine shrimp lethality test and dpph assay were performed to evaluate general toxicity and free radical scavenging properties, respectively. furthermore, antiproliferative and antimicrobial activities were assessed by mtt assay and disc diffusion methods correspondingly. additionally, all the potent samples (extracts) and its fractions in the mtt assay were further studied for the presence of various compounds by gcms apparatus. meoh extract and 40% seppak fraction indicated high amounts of total phenolic (tpc), total flavonoid content (tfc), and antioxidant properties. in the case of general toxicity, among the extracts, dichloromethane (dcm) extract showed noticeable effect. furthermore, dcm extract was indicated potent ability to eliminate breast tumor cells and minimum efficacy on normal cells. antimicrobial activity of all samples was ignorable. the potent extracts and fractions which had more antiproliferative activity were further elucidated by gcms and showed high amounts of alkanes and fatty acids. in the case of eo constituents, nonterpenoids were the major compounds.to sum up, it seems bslt could be a good preliminary approach for evaluating the cytotoxicity in mcf7 cell line. additionally, antioxidant activity, tpc, and tfc contents of all samples were in consistent with each other.