Phytochemical Profiling, Antimicrobial, Antibiofilm, and Molecular Docking of Farsetia aegyptia and Zilla spinosa from Saudi Arabia

Malek Besbes¹Assia Hamdi²Mabrouk Horchani³Kaouther Majouli⁴Amal Dbeibia²Saoussen JILANI¹Abeer Ayed Alshammari¹Salwa Ahmed Lotfi¹Khulood Fahd Alabbosh¹Ramzi Hadj Lajimi¹Hichem Ben Jannet³Jamil Kraiem³Walid Ben Selma^2*

• ¹University of Hail, Hail, Saudi Arabia
• ²Universite de Monastir Faculte de Pharmacie de Monastir, Monastir, Tunisia
• ³Universite de Monastir Faculte des Sciences de Monastir, Monastir, Tunisia
• ⁴Shaqra University College of Science and Humanities - Shaqra, Shaqra, Saudi Arabia

Background: Farsetia aegyptia and Zilla spinosa belonging to the Brassicaceae family, well-known for their biological and therapeutic activities. Objective: To our knowledge, this is the first comprehensive study to explore the composition, antibacterial, anticandidal, antibiofilm activities using in vitro, and molecular docking analysis assays of Farsetia aegyptia and Zilla spinosa herb extracts collected from the Hail region of Saudi Arabia. Methods: The antibacterial and anticandida effects of chloroform, ethanolic, and aqueous extracts from the aerial parts of Farsetia aegyptia and Zilla spinosa were determined by conventional assays. The compositions of extracts were determined by Gas Chromatography– Mass Spectrometry (GC–MS) and High-Resolution Liquid Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry (HR–LC–MS). Molecular docking simulations were carried out with the major identified compounds against penicillin-binding protein 4. Results: The chloroform and ethanolic extracts of these plants exhibited substantial activities against Enterococcus faecalis ATCC 29212, and Listeria monocytogenes ATCC 19115, with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), minimal bactericidal concentration (MBC) levels varying between 625 and 2500 µg/mL, and MBC/MIC was equal to 1. The chloroformic extract of Farsetia aegyptia demonstrated the most significant anticandidal activity against Candida albicans ATCC 90028 and Candida krusei ATCC 6258, with MIC of 625 µg/mL. Interestingly, the chloroform extract of Farsetia aegyptia demonstrated the most important antibiofilm activity against Staphylococcus aureus, with Minimum Biofilm Inhibition Concentration (MBIC50) of 700 µg/mL, while the chloroform extract of Zilla spinosa showed the most potent antibiofilm activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853 with MBIC50 = 630 µg/mL. Candida albicans showed the highest sensitivity to the ethanolic extract of Zilla spinosa, with MBIC50 = 660 µg/mL. The GC–MS analysis identified β-sitosterol (40.39%), stigmasterol (22.24%), and coumarin (9.25%), as the main components of Zilla spinosa; and linolenic acid (12.68%), linolenic acid ethyl ester (7.31%), arachidonic acid (6.96%), and (Z)-13-docosenamide (6.47%) as predominant compounds in Farsetia aegyptia. The docking analysis revealed that the key compounds from Zilla spinosa served as superior ligands, demonstrating important binding affinities (-5.5 kcal/mol). Conclusions: These findings highlight the powerful antimicrobial and antibiofilm activities of Farsetia aegyptia and Zilla spinosa, and supporting their prospective role in developing novel anti-infective agents.