extraction and identification of golder (otostegia persica) root extract phytochemicals and evaluating their anticancer activity

Otostegia persica (commonly known as golder) is a medicinal plant traditionally used for remedial properties. the aerial parts of golder have been investigated for their phytochemical composition and anticancer potential. this study aimed to extract and identify bioactive compounds from golder roots to evaluate their anticancer activity against colon cancer cell lines using the thermal reflux method with hexane, chloroform, and methanol solvents. the golder root and its extracts were analyzed to identify bioactive compounds using various techniques, including energy-dispersive x-ray (edx) analysis, fourier-transform infrared (ftir) spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance (nmr) spectroscopy, ultraviolet-visible (uv-vis) spectroscopy, and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (gc/ms). the results showed that the hexane extract had the lowest extraction efficiency due to its non-polar nature. also, compared to the methanol extract, the chloroform extract contained fewer carbohydrates which helped to identify other bioactive compounds. the chloroform extraction yielded several compounds with potential anticancer activity. these compounds were squalene, naphthalene derivatives, 1h-indole-2-carboxylic acid, vanillin, benzyl alcohol, and cicillin. the in vitro anticancer activity was evaluated using the mtt assay (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazolyl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay) on hct116, sw480, sw48, and sw742 cell lines. the inhibition of cell proliferation was significantly dose-dependent, with ic50 values of 394.9, 563.3, 721.7, and 565.1 μg/ml, respectively. this study provides new insights into the potential use of golder root extracts as anticancer agents since the chloroform extract induced morphological changes in cancer cells, thus reducing their viability by approximately 50% when the extract was used at 400 μg/ml.