Cytotoxic Activity and Metabolic Profiling of Fifteen Euphorbia Species

is a large genus of flowering plants with a great diversity in metabolic pattern. Testing the cytotoxic potential of fifteen species revealed highest activity of L. against CACO2 cell line (IC 7.2 µM) and of Haw. against HepG2 and MCF-7 cell lines (IC 5.2 and 5.1 µM, respectively). Additionally, metabolic profiling of the fifteen tested species, using LC-HRMS, for dereplication purposes, led to the annotation of 44 natural compounds. Among the annotated compounds, diterpenoids represent the major class. Dereplication approach and multivariate data analysis are adopted in order to annotate the compounds responsible for the detected cytotoxic activity. Results of PCA come in a great accordance with results of biological testing, which emphasized the cytotoxic properties of Haw. A similarity correlation network showed that the two compounds with the molecular formula C H O and C H O , are responsible for cytotoxic activity against MCF-7 and HepG2 cell lines. Similarly, the compound with molecular formula C H NO correlates with cytotoxic activity against CACO2.