Searching for relationships between the structure of selected simple coumarins, their antioxidant capacity and anticancer properties

The antioxidant capacity of 23 simple coumarins was studied by using different total antioxidant capacity assays, namely ABTS, CUPRAC, and FRAP. Simultaneously, the anticancer activity of the investigated derivatives was evaluated by MTT test on lung (A549), cervical (HeLa), prostate (PC3), and liver (HepG2) cancer cell lines. Furthermore, fifty percent inhibitory concentration (IC50) values were calculated, while for the derivatives with the strongest anticancer properties their impact on the viability of normal immortalized prostate cells (PNT2), compared to their cancer counterparts (prostate cancer cells PC3), was determined. The correlation between antioxidant capacity, anticancer potential and the structure of the studied compounds has been observed and discussed. Interestingly, it has been proved that selected derivatives (with two neighboring hydroxyl substituents attached to the aromatic ring) exhibit the strongest antioxidant capacity and anticancer properties. These findings increase our comprehension of the relationship between structure and radical scavenging activity of simple coumarins.