Phytochemical Characterization, Antioxidant, and Anti-Proliferative Activities of Wild and Cultivated Species Collected in Sicily (Italy).

The use of seeds in the culinary field or as aerial parts infusions in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic fields is widely reported. The biological activity of this plant, as demonstrated over the years, is closely related to its phytochemical content. This investigation focused on the comparative study of the same plants of , one totally wild (), while the other two, one with white flowers () and the other with blue flowers (), were subject to cultivation, irrigation, and manual weeding. Using the potential of 1D and 2D-NMR spectroscopy, coupled with MS/MS spectrometric studies, the three methanolic extracts of were investigated. Chemical studies have highlighted the presence of triterpene saponin compounds and various glycosylated flavonoids. Finally, the in vitro antiproliferative and antioxidant activities of the three individual extracts were evaluated. The antiproliferative activity performed on U-937, HL-60, and MCF-7 tumor cell lines highlighted a greater anticancer effect of the and extracts compared to the data obtained using . The antioxidant activity, however, performed to quantify ROS generation is comparable among the extracts used.