Abstract
Plant species of Ferula genus (Apiaceae) have attracted much attention due to their different biological activities. Therefore, in this study we aimed to compare between two Ferula species (Ferula communis and Ferula hermonis) based on their phytochemical compositions, antioxidant, antimicrobial and cytotoxic activities.Total phenolic and flavonoid contents and antioxidant activity for methanolic extracts of Ferula species were conducted using different colorimetric assays (Folin-Ciocalteu, Aluminum-chloride, DPPH, and ABTS). Further, the antimicrobial and cytotoxic activities were demonstrated against different microbes and cancer cell lines using the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and MTT assays respectively.Total phenolic contents (132.1 mg GAE/g) and total flavonoid contents (53.2 mg of QE/g) were higher in F. communis than F. hermonis. The IC50 values (DPPH assay) for F. communis and F. hermonis extracts were 169.4 mu g/ml and 207.5 mu g/ml, whereas ABTS assay showed IC50 values of 235.9 and 319.1 mu g/ml respectively. F. hermonis exhibited greater inhibition effect against the pathogenic microbial species than F. communis. However, F. communis displayed a remarkable cytotoxic activity with IC50 values ranged from 15.76 to 23.6 mu g/mL compared to F. hermonis. Both F. communis and F. hermonis had comparable biological effects supporting their documented health benefits in the treatment of chronic diseases.