Bioactive Composition, Antioxidant Activity, and Anticancer Potential of Freeze-Dried Extracts from Defatted Gac (Momordica cochinchinensis Spreng) Seeds

Abstract

Background: Gac (Momordica cochinchinensis Spreng) seeds have long been used in traditional medicine as a remedy for numerous conditions due to a range of bioactive compounds. This study investigated the solvent extraction of compounds that could be responsible for antioxidant activity and anticancer potential. Methods: Defatted Gac seed kernel powder was extracted with different solvents: 100% water, 50% methanol:water, 70% ethanol:water, water saturated butanol, 100% methanol, and 100% ethanol. Trypsin inhibitors, saponins, phenolics, and antioxidant activity using the 2,2’-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) diammonium salt (ABTS), the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and the ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assays; and anticancer potential against two melanoma cancer cell lines (MM418C1 and D24) were analysed to determine the best extraction solvents. Results: Water was best for extracting trypsin inhibitors (581.4 ± 18.5 mg trypsin/mg) and reducing the viability of MM418C1 and D24 melanoma cells (75.5 ± 1.3 and 66.9 ± 2.2%, respectively); the anticancer potential against the MM418C1 cells was highly correlated with trypsin inhibitors (r = 0.92, p < 0.05), but there was no correlation between anticancer potential and antioxidant activity. The water saturated butanol had the highest saponins (71.8 ± 4.31 mg aescin equivalents/g), phenolic compounds (20.4 ± 0.86 mg gallic acid equivalents/g), and antioxidant activity, but these measures were not related to anticancer potential. Conclusions: Water yielded a Gac seed extract, rich in trypsin inhibitors, which had high anticancer potential against two melanoma cell lines.

Anticancer activity of Momordica cochinchinensis (red gac) aril and the impact of varietal diversity

“…The samples collected from cool climates with a high precipitation rate during the driest month correlated with a high cytotoxicity of the aril extract towards the melanoma cells but not the breast cancer cells. This was expected since environmental stress conditions such as temperature and drought [47,48] and processing protocols [46,49] can result in production and detection of higher amounts of secondary metabolites in other plant species. However, more experiments are necessary (e.g.…”

Natural Compounds as New Cancer Treatments

“…The last original manuscript of this special issue also studies a complex mixture of natural compounds. Le et al studied the anticancer potential of a whole natural extract obtained from Momordica cochinensis seeds [8]. They performed different extraction procedures and studied the correlation between main compound families and antioxidant, and anticancer activities using different statistical approaches.…”

December 2020

“…Trypsin inbitors (Tis) are low molecular weight peptides and inhibits the hydrolase activity of serine proteases (Le et al, 2018). The seeds of Gac fruit are known to contain trypsin inhibitors also known as Momordica cochinchinensis trypsin inhibitors (MCoTIs) (Liu et al, 2012).…”