engleski

The potential use of Amorpha fruticosa L. as natural resource of biologically active compounds

Indigobush (Amorpha fruticosa L.) belongs to the genus of deciduous shrubs and semi-shrubs (Amorpha L.) from the Fabaceae family. The range of its natural habitat is from southern Canada to Mexico. In Croatia it is present since the beginning of the 20th century in the valleys of the rivers Sava, Drava and Kupa in the lowland oak forests. Due to its ability to adapt to environmental conditions and fouling the soil it is grouped in the invasive weed plant species and it represents a problem in the natural regeneration of floodplain forests. On the other hand, recent research indicates that Indigobush should not be considered only as a low used and harmful plant, since lately it has been recognized as a plant with high biological potential with possible use in the forestry and biotechnology field. Published studies indicate the presence of various phenolic compounds in the Indigobush extracts with possible antimicrobial, antioxidant and antitumor activity. Therefore, in this study we wanted to explore some of potential application of Amorpha fruticosa L. extract, as a source of biologically active compounds, for animal cell culturing as well as green corrosion inhibitors. The effect of ethanol extract of Indigobush was conducted on human tumour cell lines (HeLa and MCF-7) indicating not cytotoxic effect in tested concentrations (0.5-10 mg/ml), but even showed stimulatory effect on cell growth at the highest tested concentration. Furthermore, since serum supplementation of cultivation media has many disadvantages, scientists try to reduce or completely omit its use nowadays. Therefore, we explored the growth of cells in a medium with a reduced serum content and the stimulatory effect of the Indigobush extract was even more pronounced in medium with 5% vs. 10% of serum, indicating the potential use of this extract as an alternative for replacement of serum in culture medium. Furthermore, the inhibition effect of Amorpha fruticosa L. extract on the corrosion of aluminium in 0.5 M hydrochloric acid solution was investigated by potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) methods. Electrochemical studies showed that with increasing extract concentrations (2.5-15 mg/ml) the values of corrosion current densities decrease, while the polarization resistance values increase. The maximum inhibition efficiency of Amorpha fruticosa L. extract is reached with addition of 15 mg/ml (82.9 %), which indicates that Amorpha fruticosa L. extract has potential as green alternative to existing synthetic corrosion inhibitors. Obtained data indicate that Amorpha fruticosa L. extract could have potential application in various green technologies.

Indigobush; biologically active compounds; in vitro cell growth; green corrosion inhibitors

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