ANTIOXIDANT, ANTIMUTAGENIC AND CYTOTOXIC EFFECTS OF UNRIPE FRUITS OF ANTHOCEPHALUS CADAMBA (ROXB.) MIQ

The present work deals with evaluation of bioactivities of Anthocephalus cadamba unripe fruits and their phytochemical analysis. The 80% methanol extract of unripe fruits (MACF) was tested for antioxidant potential using various in vitro assays, antimutagenicity using TA98 and TA100 tester strains of Salmonella typhimurium in Ames assay and cytotoxicity using MTT assay. MACF scavenged DPPH and nitric oxide radicals with an IC50 of 313.18 and 512.08 μg/mL, respectively. MACF extract inhibited the mutagenicity of sodium azide more effectively than that of 4-nitro-o-phenylenediamine (NPD) and was found to be desmutagenic in nature. MACF extract dose-dependently inhibited the growth of colon (COLO 205) cancer cells. HPLC analysis revealed the presence of copious amounts of catechin, gallic acid and kaempferol in the MACF extract. Overall, MACF extract of A. cadamba fruits demonstrated potent antioxidant, antimutagenic and anticancer properties which can be exploited as functional foods because of their health benefits.