Cancer preventive and neuroprotective potentials of red hulls, kernels and oleo-gum resins from Pistachio

Abstract

This research was performed to assess cancer prevention and neuroprotective capacities of different parts of Pistachio (Pistachio vera L.). Red hulls, kernels and oleo-gum resins of Pistachio were extracted with methanol-MeOHand distilled water-dH2O, and subjected to in vitro biological assays varying from 100 to 1000 μg mL−1 concentrations. Their anticancer activities were evaluated against A549, MCF-7, and HeLa human cancer cells. Neuroprotective activities of the extracts were tested through enzyme inhibition on AChE, BChE, and TYR, which areclosely related to pathogenesis of neurobiological disorders, particularly Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.Due to cancer and neurodegenerative diseases are associated with oxidative damage, the extracts were analyzed fortheir antioxidant activities. With respect to free radical scavenging activities of the extracts, red hull extracts werefound as the most potent ones both DPPH (67.95±1.13 to 80.55±0.12%) and ABTS (86.92±0.10 to 92.04±1.06%)radicals. The highest anticancer activity were determined in MeOH and dH2O extracts obtained from oleo-gumresin against HeLa cells (IC50 = 18.50±0.85 and 28.97±0.08 µg mL-1, p< 0.01, respectively), whilst dH2O-kernelextract was found to have the weakest anticancer activity towards A549 cells (IC50 = 268.66±1.02 µg mL-1, p