Antimutagenic and Cytotoxic Potential of Punica granatum L. and Opuntia ficusindica L. Peels

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Pharmacognosy Department, National Research Centre, 33El Buhouth St., Dokki, Cairo, P.O.12622 (ID: 60014618), Egypt.

2 Genetics and Cytology Department, National Research Centre, 33El Bohouth St., Dokki, Cairo, P.O.12622, Egypt.

Abstract

TThis study was designed to validate the phytochemistry and the antimutagenic activity of two common plant peels; Punica granatum L. and Opuntia ficus-indica L. HPLC analysis revealed that P. granatum peels comprised mainly of 16 flavonoids and 18 phenolics; the most predominant flavonoid and phenolic were hesperidin and pyrogallol, respectively, while Opuntia ficus-indica L. composed of 18 flavonoids and 10 phenolics. The main flavonoid and phenolic compounds were kaempferol-3, 7-dirhamnoside and quinic, respectively. Compounds; α-amyrin acetate (1), friedelan-3-one (2), lup-20(29)-en-3β-ol (3), quercetin-3,4'-dimethyl ether-7-O-α-larabinofuranosyl β-D-glucopyranoside (4), punicaflavanol (5), and two hydrolyzable tannins (6&7) were isolated from P. granatum, while friedelin (8), 24-methylene-ergosta-5-en-3β-ol (9), apigenin-7-O-glucoside (10), isorhamnetin 3-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (11), and betanin (12) were isolated from O. ficus-indica. The antioxidant and cytotoxic studies revealed that P. granatum peel extract has relatively significant effects on the tested cancer cell lines, while that of O. ficus-indica peels showed potent cytotoxic activity against HCT-9 and HEPG2. The antimutagenicity study emphasized their ability to repair the genotoxic effect of the anticancer drug cyclophosphamide.

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