Evaluation of Antioxidant, Cytotoxicity and Antimicrobial Effects of Achillea Millefolium (YARROW) and Determination of Phytochemicals

Abstract

Achillea millefolium (A. millefolium) is one of the medicinal plants growing naturally in Anatolia and widely used in the treatment of many diseases, especially infectious diseases and digestive diseases. In this study, the determination of phenolic compounds, antioxidant, cytotoxic, and antimicrobial effects of plant extract of traditional A. millefolium were investigated. Phenolic compound analysis of the extract of the yarrow plant obtained with methanol was carried out by liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry (LC–ESI–MS/MS). Antimicrobial effect was determined by the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) method and cytotoxicity analyses were carried out on androgen-dependent prostate cancer cells (LNCaP), human embryonic kidney 293 cancer cell lines (HEK293), and colorectal adenocarcinoma (CaCO-2) cell lines by the MTT method. Total antioxidant capacity was determined by the DPPH free radical scavenging activity determination method. In the determination of antimicrobial activity, it was tested on gram-positive Bacillus subtilis (B. subtilis.), gram-negative Escherichia coli (E.Coli) and Candida albicans (C. albicans) fungi. Among total phenolics, chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, and salicylic acid were detected in high amounts. In the tests, the highest cytotoxic effect was shown on the LNCaP cell line, and the highest antimicrobial effect was shown on B. subtilis.