Nutritional composition, antioxidant activity and anticancer potential of Syzygium cumini (L.) and Syzygium malaccense (L.) fruits

Abstract

Intending to highlight new fruits with nutraceutical potential, the present work reports the nutritional and antioxidant content of Syzygium cumini (L.) Skeels (S. cumini) and Syzygium malaccense (L.) Merr. & LM Perry (S. malaccense), and evaluates the anticancer potential against CP-H460 (lung carcinoma line) and its functionality over HEK-293 (healthy embryonic kidney line), two human cells. For this, the physical-chemical characterization of the lyophilized fruits was carried out, and the content of total phenolic compounds (Folin-Ciocalteau) and the antioxidant potential (DPPH, FRAP, and ORAC) was determined. For anticancer activity, aqueous extracts were prepared and evaluated using the MTT (3-[4,5-dimethyl-triazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium) assay for periods of 20 hours. These two species are rich in dietary fibers, mainly insoluble fibers, and are sources of natural compounds and antioxidants, which possibly explain the protective potential against cancer cells. Thus, it is expected, as two source fruits, results obtained (p <0.01), mainly S. cumini in contact with CP-H460, which reduces the growth of a cell with lung carcinoma. This finding revealed that these fruits have antiproliferative activity against a lung carcinoma cell, where the highest concentration tested (2 mg/mL) was able to inhibit almost 80% of cell proliferation. Besides, when S. cumini was evaluated in HEK-293, all concentrations evaluated showed cell viability superior to the positive control (p <0.01). In conclusion, both S. cumini and S. malaccense can be used as nutraceuticals in complementary therapies given their nutritional properties.

Nutritional potential of Red Jambo fruit: dietary fibers, minerals, antioxidant potential, and bioaccessibility of phenolic compounds

“…In our other study (Gibbert et al, 2021) we had identified an expressive content of total phenolic compounds in the edible fraction of RJ (202.30 GAE 100g -1 ) and now we confirm that most of this content is found in the peel (269 mg GAE Research, Society and Development, v. 11, n. 2, e33111225578, 2022 (CC BY 4.0) | ISSN 2525-3409 | DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.33448/rsd-v11i2.25578 10 100g -1 ) of this fruit. That can be attributed to the accumulation of phenolic compounds in the fruit epidermis, acting as a protection against ultraviolet radiation as well as a defense mechanism to certain pathogens and predators (Denardin et al, 2015).…”

“…The physicochemical characterization of the edible fraction (pulp and peel) of RJ had previously been reported by Gibbert et al (2021), but in this study, the fruit fractions were separated and characterized individually. Still, the results are similar, (Table 1), and both pulp and peel have an expressive percentage of total soluble solids and high amounts of carbohydrates.…”

“…As shown in Table 5, phenolic compounds contend varied throughout the gastrointestinal digestion in vitro. For this analysis, the RJ edible fraction was used (71% of the pulp and the peel to 29%), since the fruit is usually consumed as a whole and since the benefits derived from the mixture of phenolic compounds present in the whole fruit have already been reported (Gibbert et al, 2021). Two compounds, p-coumaric (88.8 % of bioaccessibility) and trans-cinnamic acid (46.48 % of bioaccessibility) were particularly promising.…”

“…There is evidence that carbohydrates interact directly with these compounds and may impair their absorption (Rodriguez-Roque et al, 2013;Palafox-Carlos, Lafay et al, 2006;Lafay & Gil-Izquierdo, 2008). Thus, carbohydrates may have interfered in the bioaccessibility of some bioactive compounds in RJ, since it contains large amounts of carbohydrates, mainly dietary fibers (Gibbert et al, 2021).…”

Anticancer of genus Syzygium: a systematic review

“…These results may be explained by the fact that many active components present in the crude extract of ethanol compete. Lung cancer cell viability was found to be considerably decreased by an extract of Syzygium cumini at the highest dose (2 mg/mL) [ 81 ]. This type of cancer is now thought to be the most frequent because of its large prevalence (millions of new cases annually) [ 81 ].…”