Biological evaluation of gallic acid and quercetin derived from Ceriops tagal: insights from extensive in vitro and in silico studies

Abstract

Gallic acid (PubChem CID: 370) and quercetin (PubChem CID: 5280343) are major phenolic compounds in many mangrove plants that have been related to health cure. In the present study, the active fractions namely gallic acid (1) and quercetin (2) were isolated from the methanolic extract of leaves of Ceriops tagal in a Tropical mangrove ecosystem of Andaman and Nicobar Island (ANI), India. The chemical structures were determined by spectroscopic analysis: Fourier-Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), ¹H, ¹³C Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and High-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS). The anticancer activity of isolated compounds (1) and (2) were evaluated by in vitro assays against two human cancer cell lines namely, HeLa (Cervical) and MDA-MB231 (Breast) cancer cells revealed that IC₅₀ values of gallic acid (HeLa: 4.179197 ± 0.45 µg/ml; MDA-MB231: 80.0427 ± 0.19 µg/ml at 24 h) and quercetin (HeLa: 99.914 ± 0.18 µg/ml; MDA-MB231: 18.288382 ± 0.12 µg/ml at 24 h), respectively. Antioxidant properties of gallic acid (1) and quercetin (2) are found to be IC₅₀ value of 0.77 ± 0.41 µg/ml and 1.897 ± 0.81 µg/ml, respectively. Molecular docking results explained that gallic acid (1) and quercetin (2) showed estimated binding free energy (ΔG) of −5.4 and −6.9 kcal/mol towards drug target Bcl-B protein, respectively. The estimated inhibition constant (Ki) for these two molecules are 110 and 8.75 μM, respectively. The MD simulation additionally supported that quercetin molecule is significantly improved the structural stability of Bcl-B protein. The present study provides key insights about the importance of polyphenols, and thus leads to open the therapeutic route for anti-cancer drug discovery process.

Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma

Keywords:

• Anticancer
• antioxidant
• gallic acid
• quercetin
• in vitro
• molecular docking
• molecular dynamics simulation
• Bcl-B protein
• mangrove plant

Acknowledgements

We earnestly acknowledge our gratitude to the Forest Department, ANI for providing data on mangroves of ANI and facilities for the field survey and committee members who reviewing our article and recommendation for the publication. Views expressed are of the authors only and not necessarily of the affiliated organizations. JM and MJ thank to Sharda University for support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was financially and technically supported by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India, and the World Bank under the India ICZM Project.