Didem AKSU, Sevda GÜZEL KARA
Hacettepe University Journal of the Faculty of Pharmacy - 2025;45(4):345-352
Vincetoxicum hirundinaria Medik. ( Apocynaceae ) is commonly known as white swallow-wort. Numerous medicinal uses of the species in different countries have been documented in the literature. This research focused on analyzing ethanol-based extracts from various parts of V . hirundinaria, including flowers, leaves, seeds, and seed pods, to assess their phenolic and flavonoid compound levels, antioxidant activity, and cytotoxic profile. Quantitative assessment of total phenolics and flavonoids was carried out using the Folin-Ciocalteu proce -dure and the AlCl3 colorimetric assay, in that order. For antioxidant activity the DPPH radical scavenging assay was used. Total phenolics and flavonoids were detected within the ranges of 8.26-5.34 mg GAE/g and 5.36-2.40 mg QE/g, re -spectively. The flower extract showed the greatest antioxidant performance, with 75.2% activity and an ascorbic acid equivalent of 13.7 mM per gram of sample. Furthermore, cytotoxicity was tested on HaCaT cell lines using the MTT as -say. In all experiments involving plant extracts and at all tested concentrations (0.25-1 mg/mL) no toxic effects were observed on HaCaT cells. These findings indicate the plant's potential for cosmetic, dermatological, and pharmaceutical use. This is the first comparative study performed on ethanol extracts of differ -ent parts of V . hirundinaria.
