Integrated Morphoanatomical, Phytochemical, and Bioactive Insights Into the Ethnomedicinal Plant Daphniphyllum neilgherrense.

Daphniphyllum neilgherrense (Daphniphyllaceae), an ethnomedicinal plant, is used for skin diseases and various ailments, for which the studies on its anatomical, phytochemical and pharmacological properties are unexplored. Hence, the present study has been aimed to explore anatomical, phytochemical, antimicrobial, antioxidant, and anticancer activities. The anatomy of different parts of the plant is elaborated for the first time. Antibacterial activity observed (inhibition zone) against Gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus) and Gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli) was 18.10 ± 0.22 and 16.23 ± 0.15 mm, respectively, while the antifungal activity against Candida albicans was 17.41 ± 0.16 mm. Minimum inhibitory concentration of D. neilgherrense aqueous extract against tested bacterial species varied between 0.250 and 1.00 mg/mL, while it was 2.00 and 4.00 mg/mL for fungal species. Antioxidant potential (IC50) of D. neilgherrense was: 25.91 µg/mL (DPPH); 80.17 µg/mL (H2O2); reducing power assay OD value: 1.976. Cytotoxicity of the extract against MDA-MB-231 cell line revealed the IC50 value of 51.24 µg/mL. The findings supported that phytochemicals, mainly flavonoids and phenols from D. neilgherrense leaf extract are highly responsible for pharmaceutical applications by demonstrating strong antioxidant, anticancer and broad-spectrum antimicrobial activities.