Abstract

PHYTOCHEMICAL AND CYTOTOXICITY INVESTIGATIONS OF DILLENIA INDICA L. GROWN IN EGYPT

Essam M. Abdel -Kader and Zeinab T. ABD EL Shakour

Abstract

Objective Dillenia indica L. (Dilleniaceae), is found to have goodmedicinal and therapeutic values and is being used by tribal and folkcommunities of various regions. Although its fruit is edible, it is notvery much well known by people in Egypt. Its richness in phenolicsand triterpenoids had led to test for its antioxidant and cytotoxicactivities and isolation of its components. Methods: Preliminaryphytochemical screening analysis of the ethanol extracts of leaves,stems and fruits, of D. indica L., was done. Isolation of some phenolicsfrom fruit extracts was done using usual chromatographic techniques.Triterpenoid have been analyzed by gas chromatography-massspectrometry. The antioxidant activity of the fruit extracts wasmeasured using the stable free radical DPPH assay. The cytotoxicactivity of the ethanol extracts of leaves, stems and fruits, was tested using two cell lines:colon carcinoma cell line (HCT-116) and liver carcinoma cell line (HEPG2) adopting SRBmethod. Results: The preliminary phytochemical screening of the ethanol extracts of theleaves, stems and fruits of D. indica L., revealed the presence of steroids, terpenoids, tannins,saponins, anthocyanins and flavonoids and absence of alkaloids and cardiac glycosides.Seven compounds had been isolated from the aqueous methanolic extract of the fruit of D.indica L. namely Quercetin-3-O-glucopyranoside (1), Rhamnetin-3-O-rhamnopyranoside (2),Apigenin-6-C-arabinopyranosyl-8-C-glucopyranoside (3), Apigenin-6, 8-di-Cglucopyranoside(4), Quercetin-3, 7-di-O-glucopyranoside (5), Myricetin (6) Myricetin-3-Oglucopyranoside(7). The fruits extract showed very strong free radical scavenging activity with IC50 value of 30. 38 μg/mL. Only the ethanol extract of D. indica L. stems showed significant cytotoxicity activity against HCT-116 and HEPG2 carcinoma cell lines with IC50 = 9.8 μg and IC50 = 20.1 μg respectiviely, while The ethanol extract of leaves and fruits failed to exert a considerable effect on HCT-116 and HEPG2 carcinoma cell lines. Sixteen triterpenoids compounds were identified in the leaves, stems and fruits. Lupeol was the major component in leaves, stem and fruits being of 32.72, 37.49 and 16.48% respectively, followed by betulinaldehyde 20.28, 23.29 and 16.06% and betulinic acid 18.41, 22.29 and14.62% respectively. Conclusion: D. indica L. can be considered as a natural medicinal plant with a potential antioxidant and anticancer activities due to its bioactive ingredients.

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