Insights into the Invitro Antioxidant, Anti-Inflammatory and Anticancer Activities of Limonia acidissima Fruits

Abstract

Wood apple botanically identified as Limonia acidissima is an indigenous fruit with amazing nutritional and health benefits. Reports from traditional literature of Ayurveda and Siddha portrays the medicinal properties of this fruit. The scooped pulp of the ripe fruit is consumed as such or it can be made into different recipes. But inclusion of this fruit in our diet is not found as a regular practice. Many people are still unaware of the benefits of this fruit. Hence, this study was taken up to unravel the biological potencies of this fruit by conducting in vitro experiments. Phytochemicals such as alkaloids, flavonoids, phenols, saponins and ascorbic acid have been estimated. Anti-inflammatory activity of the aqueous extract of fruit pulp combined with outer rind has been evaluated through inhibition of albumin denaturation. Among the 5 different concentrations (200, 400, 600, 800, 1000 µg/ml), at 1000 µg/ml wood apple has shown 74.55% of protein denaturation inhibition which was compared with standard Diclofenac sodium. Antioxidant capacity of the extract was expressed as mg/100g ascorbic acid equivalent through phosphomolybdenum assay. Dose dependent increase in the antioxidant activity was observed. About 8 different concentrations of the aqueous extract of L. acidissima were evaluated for their cytotoxic activity on MCF 7 cell line. At a concentration of 1000 µg/ml, the extract has shown 93.43% of cytotoxicity and 6.57% of cell viability. Apoptotic induction was evaluated and confirmed by the formation of DNA ladders through DNA fragmentation assay. GCMS analysis of wood apple fruit pulp and rind revealed the presence of several phytochemicals among which many of them had therapeutic activity reported earlier.

Formulation and Evaluation of in Vitro Anti-Inflammatory and Anticoagulant Efficacy of Tulasi Oil – A Siddha Polyherbal Formulation

“…In the present study, the polyherbal formulation of Tulasi oil showed a maximum percentage of haemolysis at 250 μg/ml concentration (86%) which is lower than that of the standard (88%). Similarly, Sree et al, 30 proved that the anti-inflammatory potential of polyherbal formulation of Balapunarnavadi choornam by HRBC membrane stabilization Denaturation of tissue proteins is one of the underlying causes of inflammatory and arthritic disease 31 . Neutrophils are known to be a rich source of proteinases which carry in their lysosomal granules, and it was previously reported that leukocytes proteinase plays an important role in the development of tissue damage during the inflammatory response 32 .…”

Beneath the rind: A review on the remarkable health benefits and applications of the wood apple fruit

“…The findings the study revealed the presence of higher phenolic content ranging from 3.01 to 7.23 mg GAE/g on DW [ 30 ]. A separate study found that wood apple fruit contains a total phenolic compound in the concentration of 32.18 μg/mg [ 16 ]. Kerkar et al [ 4 ] reveals that L. acidissima exhibits a significant level of phenolic content, measuring 38.67 mg (GAE)/g DW [ 4 ].…”

“…The extracts' flavonoid concentration was discovered to be extremely high ranging from 35.51 μg CE/mg [ 1 ]. A different study was conducted in which the total flavonoid content was estimated to be 18.15 μg/mg [ 16 ].…”

“…In a study, various alkaloids were found to be present in the wood apple fruit, such as acidisiminin epoxide, triterpenoid acidissimin, acidissiminol, dihydroxyacidissiminol, N-benzoyltyramine, acidissiminol epoxide [ 25 ]. Whereas another study found that wood apple fruit pulp contains a good amount of alkaloids (26.01 μg/mg) [ 16 ].…”

“…In another study, it was determined that ethanolic and water fruit extracts shows inhibitory effects against C. albicans, A. tumefaciens, B. subtilis, P. fluorescens, and Escherichia coli [ 13 ]. Also, the fruit extract shows anti-cancer properties against various cancer cell lines like MCF7, SRBR3 and MDA-MBA435 and SKBR3 cells [ [14] , [15] , [16] ].…”