Centaurea species have received considerable interest in biological researches due to their many important biological activities. As a continuation of our studies on Centaurea species, the current study aimed to assess Centaurea ammocyanus aerial parts hydromethanolic extract for its phytochemical constituents, determine its total phenolic content, investigate its hemolytic effect on human erythrocytes and anti-hemolytic activity in the protection of normal and G6PD enzyme-deficient human erythrocytes against oxidative damage. The results demonstrated that the total phenolic content of C. ammocyanus extract was 37.65± 0.6 mg gallic acid equivalent/g extract. The results revealed that hemolysis caused by C. ammocyanus extract was very low with a maximum value of 4.06% at the concentration 3000 µg/ml. The results also showed that the hemolysis induced by H2O2 is reduced in a concentration-dependent manner in the presence of the C. ammocyanus extract. The highest protection values were about 88.14% and 92.59% for normal and G6PD-deficient erythrocytes, respectively. Through this study, it can be concluded that C. ammocyanus aerial parts extract showed no obvious hemolytic effect, and could be considered safe for human erythrocytes. The extract had antioxidant activity and was able to protect normal and G6PD-deficient human erythrocytes against hemolytic damage induced by hydrogen peroxide.
Keywords
Centaurea ammocyanus; Hemolytic effect; Anti-hemolytic; G6PD deficiency; Total phenolic content.