Radical scavenging activity and cholinesterase inhibitory activity of Leopoldia comosa (L.) bulbs

Leopoldia comosa is a spontaneous plant growing in all Mediterranean area, including Calabria, where its bulbs (known as “cipudizze”) were used in traditional gastronomy and used flavoured with garlic, chilli pepper, or fried with potatoes [1,2]. Bulbs (300 g) were extracted with EtOH through maceration. In order to operate a separation of lipophilic compounds, the total extract was solubilized with MeOH/H2O (8:2) and extracted with n-hexane. The ethanol extract showed a total phenols content of 56.6 mg chlorogenic acid equivalent per g of extract and a flavonoids content of 23.4 mg quercetin equivalent per g of extract. Ethanol extract demonstrated the strongest radical scavenging activity with an IC50 value of 40.9 µg/ml. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of neurodegenerative disorders. Actually, AD treated by the use of agents which restore the level of acetylcholine through inhibition of both two major forms of cholinesterase: acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE). n-Hexane extract exhibited the highest bioactivity tested using Ellman’s method [3] with IC50 values of 104.9 and 128.1 µg/mL for AChE and BChE, respectively.