Altitudinal gradients influence the accumulation of pharmaceutically important phenolic compounds in the leaves of Lobelia nicotianifolia Roth. and regulates its antioxidant and anticancer property

This study intended to investigate the effects of altitudinal gradients on the accumulation of phenolic compounds and bioactivity among different populations of Lobelia nicotianifolia Roth. from Northern Western Ghats of India. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) revealed a maximum content of embelin (16.36 µg/g DW), gallic acid (53.47 µg/g DW), and quercetin (18.93 µg/g DW) in Kas population (1148 m m.s.l.). L. nicotianifolia from Kas region has higher radical scavenging activity in 2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and2,2 -azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) assays and also exhibited higher cytotoxicity against two breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7 and MDA-MB231). A correlation analysis indicates a significant relationship between altitudinal gradients of L. nicotianifolia population and accumulation of phenolic compounds and bioactivity. Principle component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) grouped L. nicotianifolia populations into different clusters based on their altitudes. L. nicotianifolia from Kas region (1148 m) is selected as an elite population because of its potential to accumulate higher phenolic compounds and subsequent bioactivity.