Anticancer and antimicrobial compounds from Croton caudatus Gieseler and Eurya acuminata DC: Two edible plants used in the traditional medicine of the Kuki tribes

Eurya acuminata DC and Croton caudatus Gieseler are two ethno-medicinal plants used by Kuki community of North East India. From these plants, we have characterized fifteen phytochemicals (1-15) by extensive use of chromatographic and spectroscopic methods. They were also tested for in vitro cytotoxic effects against A549 and MIAPACA2 cell lines and antimicrobial activities against Mycobacterium smegmatis and Candida albicans. All compounds showed moderate activity against the MIAPACA2 cell lines. Compounds tricosan-1-ol (6), octacosanoic acid (7), β-sitosterol (10) and (E)-dodec-3-en-1-ol (14) exhibited promising activity against A549 cell lines with IC₅₀ of 16.72, 4.5, 4.42 and 4.5 μg/ml respectively. Further, hexatriacontan-1-ol (2) exhibited lowest MIC of 50 μg/ml against C. Albicans and henicosan-1-ol (3) at 25 μg/ml against M. smegmatis. They were also screened through docking analysis against two Phosphatidylinositol-3-Kinase nodal proteins and three feedback loop proteins of cancers. Thus, this study validates their traditional uses as herbal anticancer and antimicrobial agents.

Keywords: Croton caudatus Gieseler; Eurya acuminata DC; Anticancer activity; antimicrobial activity; in silico study.