Affiliations: [a] Biochemistry Department, School of Medicine, University of Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica
| [b] Pharmacy Faculty, University of Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica
| [c] Department of Agriculture, Food Chemistry, University Mediterranea of Reggio Calabria, Reggio Calabria, Italy
| [d] Pharmacy Department, University of Salerno, Fisciano, Italy
| [e] National Center of Food Science and Technology (CITA), University of Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: María S. Quesada, Facultad de Farmacia, Universidad de Costa Rica, Campus Rodrigo Facio, 2060, San José, Costa Rica. Tel.: +506 2511 8345; E-mail: maria.quesada@ucr.ac.cr.
Abstract: BACKGROUND:Lower risk of digestive tract cancer development has been associated with polyphenol intake. Bactris guineensis is an edible endemic palm that grows in Central and South America. OBJECTIVE:This study performs a phenolic characterization of Bactris guineensis and evaluates the bioactivity of this fruit. METHODS:The phenolic compounds of B. guineensis were characterized by HPLC-UV-HRMS analyses and the antioxidant activity was measured by chemical and cellular methods. Additionally, cytotoxicity of B. guineensis polyphenols was performed on 4 cancer cell lines and the pro-apoptotic effect was evaluated by flow cytometry using annexin staining. RESULTS:The major phenolic compounds of B. guineensis were proanthocyanidins. The extract IC50 for DPPH was 3.3±0.2 μg/mL and for induced intracellular ROS was 153±13 μg/mL. MTT cytotoxic assays demonstrate IC50 values between 16.6 and 24.9 μg/mL for the colon and hepatic adenocarcinomas, with high selectivity effects towards cancer cells compared to non-tumor cells. A 20 to 50% early apoptotic effect was observed in cancer cells lines by Annexin/PI staining. CONCLUSIONS:B. guineensis evidenced an important radical scavenging activity and a strong cytotoxic activity against hepatic and colorectal carcinoma cells, showing better values than procyanidin extracts from other fruits previously described.
