Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Department of Pharmacognosy, Pharmaceutical and Drug Indutsries Research Institute, National Research Centre, Cairo, Egypt
2
Pharmacognosy Department, National Research Centre, Dokki, Cairo, 12622, Egypt
3
bPharmacognosy Department, Pharmaceutical and Drug Industries Research Division, National Research Centre
4
Department of Pharmacology, National Research Centre
5
Pharmacognosy Department, Faculty of Pharmacy, Ain Shams University. Cario, Egypt
6
Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Ain Shams Univeristy
7
Department of Pharmacognosy, Pharmaceutical and Drug Industries Research Institute, National Research Centre
Abstract
The current study aimed to investigate the phytochemical profile and the in vitro estrogenic activity of Phoenix rupicola T. Anderson seeds’ extracts. Gas chromatography/ mass spectrometry (GC/MS) of the petroleum ether (seed oil) and chloroform extracts revealed the characterization of 93 compounds. γ-Sitosterol (8.54%), n-dodecane (6.00%), n-undecane (5.87%) and (2E)-2-decenal (3.48%) represented the major compounds in the petroleum ether extract, whereas lauric acid (21.73%), γ-sitosterol (21.21%), palmitic acid (9.19%) and myristic acid (6.37%) were the main components in the chloroform extract. Moreover, investigation of the 70% aqueous methanol extract by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with diode-array detector (HPLC-DAD) revealed the identification of 13 phenolic compounds, of which catechin (105.75 mg%), vanillic acid (58.26%), p-hydroxybenzoic acid (32.84%) and cinnamic acid (27.62%) dominated The estrogenic activity of the extracts was tested in vitro via sulforhodamine B (SRB) assay on MCF-7 cells, where petroleum ether extract at a dose of 10 ug/mL exhibited the highest activity (p < 0.05) indicated by 1.17 % increase in cells’ proliferation compared to 17β-estradiol. Consequently, P. rupicola seeds provide a promising source of phytoconstituents with estrogenic activity worthy for further detailed studies.
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