Linking Metabolomic Diversity to Pharmacological Potency in Anonidium mannii Leaf Extracts.

Abstract

Medicinal plants remain vital to drug discovery due to their diverse secondary metabolites. Anonidium mannii, an underutilized plant traditionally used for fever, diabetes, cancers, and infections, was evaluated for its pharmacological and metabolomic profiles using hexane, chloroform, and butanol-water extracts. Antibacterial activity against six pathogenic bacteria, antioxidant potential (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay), and cytotoxicity on Vero and HepG2 cells (MTT (3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5 diphenyl tetrazolium bromide) assay) were assessed. Chemical profiling employed integrated LC-MS and GC-MS. The butanol-water extract exhibited strong antibacterial effects (MIC: 0.62-5.0 mg/mL) and potent antioxidant activity (IC₅₀: 0.44 ± 0.05 µg/mL), while the hexane extract showed notable selectivity toward HepG2 cells (SI: 1.99). LC-MS revealed bioactive metabolites, including flavonoids and caffeoylquinic acids, most reported here for the first time in A. mannii. GC-MS tentatively identified several bioactive hydrocarbons and esters with known anticancer properties. These results provide evidence of antibacterial, antioxidant, and cytotoxic activities in A. mannii leaf extracts, consistent with its traditional uses.