Profiling Key Aroma Compounds of Senecio glaucus L. and their Antimicrobial and Antioxidant Activities: Multiplex of GC-MS, NMR and In Silico Studies

The essential oils of Senecio plants have been used to treat a wide range of ailments. The current study aimed to extract the essential oil of Senecio glaucus obtained from Egypt's Nile delta and determine its chemical profile using GC-MS and NMR analysis. Then, the antimicrobial activity of the oil has been investigated against different fungal and bacterial strains. In addition, its activity as radical scavenger has been evaluated using DPPH, ABTS, and metal chelating techniques. The results revealed the identification of 50 compounds representing 98.80 % of the oil total mass. Sesquiterpenes, including dehydrofukinone (27.15 %) and 4,5-di-epi-aristolochene (10.27 %), as well as monoterpenes, including p-cymene (4.77 %), represented the most predominant constituents. The dehydrofukinone has been isolated and structurally confirmed using 1D and 2D NMR techniques. The oil has showed remarkable antifungal activity against Candida glabrata and C. albicans where the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum fungicidal concentration (MFC) values were 3.13 mu g/mL and 1.50 mu g/mL and 12.50 mu g/mL and 6.30 mu g/mL, respectively that could be attributed to the sesquiterpene ketones present in the aerial tissues of the plant. Also, this oil inhibited the growth of the tested bacteria with MIC ranging from 12.50-100.00 mu g/mL. In comparison to ascorbic acid and Trolox, the EO had remarkable scavenging activity of DPPH, ABTS and metal chelating with IC50 values of 313.17 +/- 13.4, 493.83 +/- 20.1, and 409.13 +/- 16.7 mu g/mL. The docking studies of the identified compounds of the oil to different microbial targets, including Gyrase B and alpha-sterol demethylase, showed that the phytol possessed the best binding affinities toward the active sites of both enzymes with Delta G=-7.42 and -7.78 kcal/mol, respectively. In addition, the phytol revealed the highest binding affinity to tyrosine kinase Hck with Delta G=-7.44 kcal/mol.