Assessment of the antioxidant, antiproliferative and antityrosinase potential of unripe fruit of Prunus x domestica L.

Abstract

Prunus x domestica L. is a valuable plant that belongs to the Rosaceae family and is distributed worldwide. The aim of this study is to investigate the biological activity of the unripe green fruits of P. domestica, which have only been studied to a limited extent so far. The antioxidant capacity of the fruit extracts and subfractions was investigated by DPPH, TEAC and CUPRAC assays. The antiproliferative effect was investigated against the cell lines L929, CaCo2 and PC3. While the highest antiproliferative effect against cancer cell lines was found in the unripe fruit ethyl acetate subfraction, extracts and fractions showed no cytotoxic effect on the healthy cell line L929. The fruit ethyl acetate fraction showed a strong inhibition of the enzyme tyrosinase with an IC50: 51.83 µg/ml compared to standard compound kojic acid (IC50: 21 µg/ml). It was found that the methanol extract from unripe fruits as well as the ethyl acetate and aqueous subfractions exhibited strong antioxidant activity, showed dose-dependent cytotoxic activity on PC3 and CaCo2 cells, but had no cytotoxic effect on healthy L929 cells. The high antioxidant capacity of the fruits, their selective cytotoxic effect on prostate and colon cancer cells and their strong tyrosinase inhibitory activity suggest that they could be a new, safe and cost-effective source for the pharmaceutical and cosmeceutical industries.