Phytochemical Composition, In Vitro Antimicrobial, Antioxidant, and Enzyme Inhibition Activities, and In Silico Molecular Docking and Dynamics Simulations of Centaurea lycaonica: A Computational and Experimental Approach

Centaurea lycaonica is a local endemic species from the Centaurea L. genus. The Centaurea species has a wide range of usage in treating diseases in folk medicine. There are limited biological activity studies on this species in the literature. This study investigated enzyme inhibition and antimicrobial activity, antioxidant effect, and chemical content of extract and fractions of C. lycaonica. Enzyme inhibition activity was tested by α-amylase, α-glucosidase, and tyrosinase enzyme inhibition methods and antimicrobial activity by the microdilution method. The antioxidant activity was investigated using DPPH•, ABTS•+, and FRAP tests. The chemical content was determined by LC-MS/MS. The methanol extract showed the highest activity for α-glucosidase and α-amylase, even surpassing the positive control acarbose, with IC50 values of 56.333 ± 0.986 and 172.800 ± 0.816 μg/mL, respectively. Additionally, the ethyl acetate fraction also exhibited high activity for α-amylase with an IC50 value of 204.067 ± 1.739 μg/mL and tyrosinase with an IC50 value of 213.900 ± 1.553 μg/mL. Moreover, this extract and fraction were found to have the highest total phenolic and flavonoid contents and antioxidant activity. Additionally, LC-MS/MS analyses of active extract and fraction revealed mainly the presence of phenolic compounds and flavonoids. In silico molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulation studies of determining compounds apigenin and myristoleic acid, common in CLM and CLE extracts and active against α-glucosidase and α-amylase, were performed. In conclusion, methanol extract and ethyl acetate fraction showed potential enzyme inhibition and antioxidant activity as a natural agent. Molecular modeling studies corroborate the findings of in vitro activity analyses.